File No. 195.1/119
The Ambassador in Brazil (Morgan) to the Secretary of State
Rio De Janeiro, September 23, 1914.
[Received October 13.]
No. 461]
Sir: Referring to the subject of provisional American registration for the British registered steamer Robert Dollar , recently sold by the Dollar Steamship Line of Victoria, British Columbia, to a company of the same name of San Francisco, California, I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of the Department’s telegrams of September 14, 6 p.m.,1 September 16, 6 p.m.,2 and September 19, 4 p.m.3 The two latter telegrams occupied the normal period in transmission between Washington and Rio de Janeiro but the telegram of September 14, routed by the Central and South American Telegraph Company and the Uruguayan and Brazilian land lines, was sixty-six hours in transmission and was received at the Embassy at noon on September 17, two and a half hours later than the telegram of September 16.
There appears to have been a misunderstanding at the Department regarding the closure by the British authorities of the British registration of this steamer. The Department’s telegram of September 14, 6 p.m., stated that “ S. S. Robert Dollar was given provisional certificate of registration as American vessel several days since by American Consul General, Rio de Janeiro” and the Department’s telegram of September 16, 6 p.m., informed me that “Department understands British authorities have closed ship’s British register.” But at the time these telegrams were sent the closure of the British register had not been effected, although Mr. Burnell, the American Consul General at Rio de Janeiro, was working in cooperation with Mr. O’Sullivan Beare, the British Consul General, toward that end. On September 11 the latter official had inquired by telegraph from the marine department of the Board of Trade, London, whether he was authorized to ratify the proposed transfer of the Robert Dollar , stating in his telegram that the owners of that vessel had arranged to transfer her to the United States flag. On September 12 he received the answer that “with reference to your telegram of September 11 in re British S. S. Robert Dollar the reply is in the affirmative.” It was therefore in accordance with his instructions from the Board of Trade that he was arranging to discharge the crew and to complete the necessary preliminaries incident to closing the British register.
[Page 498]Upon September 11 Mr. Burnell informed the captain of the port of Rio de Janeiro, as on September 7 he had already informed the inspector of customs, that he had been instructed by the Department to issue a provisional American register to the Robert Dollar which had arrived at this port under British registration and he inquired with what local regulations the master of the vessel must comply in order to procure a clearance by reason of a change of registry. After consulting the Foreign Office the captain of the port replied to this communication on September 14, in the sense of the enclosure to this despatch,1 the substance of which was telegraphed to the department by Mr. Burnell on the same day, as follows: “Brazilian authorities state that they can not assent to change of nationality of steamer Robert Dollar , being a vessel of a belligerent nation. And they are unwilling to make a precedent which might have doubtful interpretation as to neutrality decreed.” In his telegram Mr. Burnell also said that the status of the steamer under her British registry had not yet been altered. This telegram was sent after I ascertained at the Foreign Office that that Department had authorized the communication from the captain of the port to our Consulate General.
Although, in spite of Mr. Burnell’s information that the British registry had not been closed, the Department telegraphed me on September 16 that it was the “understanding of the Department” that it had been closed; immediately upon the receipt of that telegram I communicated its contents personally to the Minister for Foreign Affairs and telegraphed you that the Brazilian Government would gladly modify its attitude, as reported by Mr. Burnell, if the British Chargé d’Affaires would “intimate his acquiescence. . . in the proposed American registry.” The meaning of this phrase would undoubtedly have been clearer had I amplified it by the statement that the Brazilian Government would grant the Robert Dollar a clearance as soon as the British Charge would allow his Consul General to complete the necessary preliminaries and close British registration. This was the thought which prompted my suggestion that our Embassy in London should ask the British Government to instruct its representatives in Rio de Janeiro in that sense, the suggestion being made because the British Chargé d’Affaires on September 18—the day on which my telegram was sent, ignorant of what the attitude of his Government might be regarding the closing of the register—had asked by telegraph instructions on the point.
The Department’s telegram of September 19 was brought to the attention of Dr. Lauro Müller on the day of its receipt and in answer to it he assured me again that, as soon as he was informed that the British registration has been closed, he would authorize the captain of the port of Rio de Janeiro to issue a clearance permit. This was the situation in which the matter stood when the master of the Robert Dollar received telegraphic instructions from her owners to proceed to the United States under the ship’s existing British register, an instruction which he immediately carried out. Clearance was given him under his British registry yesterday and he sailed to-day.
[Page 499]I have not yet been informed by the British Chargé d’Affaires whether his Government has expressed an opinion about the closure of the British registry but as soon as I ascertain what that opinion is, I will communicate it to you by despatch. The Department will see from the correspondence between the marine Board of Trade and the British Consul General that Mr. O’Sullivan Beare was cooperating with Mr. Burnell to close the registry and that the interruption in doing so was wholly due to the interference of the British Chargé d’Affaires who was unwilling to assume the responsibility of giving an opinion upon the question of closure. Had the attitude of the British Consul General not altered on the advice of the British Chargé d’Affaires, British registration of the Robert Dollar would have been closed some days ago and she might now be on her way to the United States under provisional American registration in accordance with the Department’s desire.
I have [etc.]