File No. 763.72112/2303
[Enclosure]
The British Secretary of State for Foreign
Affairs (Grey) to
the American Ambassador (Page)
No. 15404/45
London,
February 16, 1916
.
Your Excellency: I have the honor to
acknowledge the receipt of your excellency’s note of the 26th
ultimo relative to the possible effects of the Trading with the
Enemy (Extension of Powers) Act, 1915, on United States
commerce.
The act was framed with the object of bringing British trading
with the enemy regulations into greater harmony with those
adopted by the French
[Page 353]
Government since the commencement of the war, by applying in
some degree the test of nationality in the determination of
enemy character in addition to the old test of domicile which
experience has shown cannot provide a sufficient basis under
modern commercial conditions for measures intended to deprive
the enemy of all assistance, direct or indirect, from national
resources
His Majesty’s Government realized, however, that the application
of this principle to its fullest extent, while entirely
legitimate and in accordance with the practice of other
countries, might, if applied at the present time to commercial
activities as widespread as those of British subjects, involve
avoidable inconvenience and loss to innocent traders.
They were careful, therefore, in devising the necessary
legislation not only to avoid any definition which would impose
enemy status upon all persons of enemy nationality and
associations, but also to take powers of discrimination which
would enable them to apply the purely commercial restrictions
contemplated only in regard to those persons from whom it was
necessary in British interests to withhold the facilities
afforded by British resources.
His Majesty’s Government have therefore abstained from a course
of action admittedly within their rights as belligerents, which
is not only the existing practice of the French Government, but
in strict accordance with the doctrine openly avowed by many
other States to be the basis upon which their trading with the
enemy regulations would be founded in the event of war, and have
confined themselves to passing a piece of purely domestic
legislation empowering them to restrict the activities and trade
of persons under British jurisdiction in such a manner and to
such an extent as may seem to them to be necessary in the
national interest.
His Majesty’s Government readily admit the right of persons of
any nationality resident in the United States to engage in
legitimate commercial transactions with any other persons. They
cannot admit, however, that this right can in any way limit the
right of other governments to restrict the commercial activities
of their nationals in any manner which may seem desirable to
them by the imposition of prohibitions and penalties which are
operative solely upon persons under their jurisdiction.
In claiming this right which appears to them to be inherent in
sovereignty and national independence, His Majesty’s Government
desire to assure the United States Government that they will
exercise it with every possible care to avoid injury to neutral
commerce and they venture to think that the voluntary limitation
of their powers by the terms of the Trading with the Enemy
(Extension of Powers) Act, 1915, is evidence of their desire and
intention to act with the greatest possible consideration for
neutral interests.
I have [etc.]
For
Sir Edward Grey
:
L. Worthington Evans
