The Acting Secretary of State to the British Ambassador (Spring Rice)

Memorandum

The Acting Secretary of State presents his compliments to His Britannic Majesty’s Ambassador and has the honor to acknowledge the receipt of a memorandum of the British Embassy dated the 17th instant, stating that two German oil steamers, the Chatham and Standard, belonging to the German-American Company of Hamburg, have been sold to the Standard Oil Company of New Jersey and had their names changed to Montano and Caloria respectively.

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His Majesty’s Ambassador states that he is instructed that His Majesty’s Government consider themselves entitled to seize these ships on the ground that the sale was effected only in order to escape risk of capture.

In reply the Acting Secretary of State desires to point out that he is advised that the vessels mentioned were really owned by American interests, the stock of the German-American Company of Hamburg, a subsidiary company of the Standard Oil Company of New Jersey, being owned and controlled by American capital. These vessels, therefore, are regarded as having merely changed their German registry for American registry, which entitles them to fly the American flag. In other words, this is a case of the transfer of flag only and not of ownership.

The Acting Secretary of State has the honor to point out that a transaction of this character is regarded by the Government of the United States as legitimate under the rules of international law, and that it will proceed upon this ground in case these vessels are seized by the authorities of His Majesty’s Government.1

Department of State,
  1. In the cases of two seizures of ships similarly transferred, which arose within the next few days, the British Government waived the question of their right to fly the American flag. See ante, pp. 3289.