The Proclamation of Rebellion, officially titled A Proclamation for Suppressing Rebellion and Sedition, was the response of King George III to the news of the Battle of Bunker Hill at the outset of the American Revolutionary War. Issued on 23 August 1775, it declared elements of the American colonies in a state of "open and avowed rebellion". It ordered officials of the empire "to use their utmost endeavours to withstand and suppress such rebellion". The 1775 proclamation of rebellion also encouraged subjects throughout the empire, including those in Britain, to report anyone carrying on "traitorous correspondence" with the rebels to be punished.