Papers Relating to the Foreign Relations of the United States, 1916, Supplement, The World War

File No. 763.72112/3010

The Greek Legation to the Department of State

[Translation]

Memorandum

Since the outbreak of the war in Europe, the states belonging to the two warring groups have, at times according to the principles of international law, at other times carrying out declarations concerning contraband of war, blockade of enemy commerce, or other similar measures, resorted to acts such as visitations at sea, embargoes, or even the destruction of vessels by torpedoes or bombs, which have worked deep injury to the interests of the subjects of neutral states and are still injuring them.

The importance of the indemnity claims, if one may judge from the large number of applications filed with the Royal Government by Hellenic subjects who have suffered from the acts of the belligerents, is such as to engross for a long time the services of the competent authorities of the states concerned. And while at the present time we may not expect to achieve practical results through the diplomatic channel as to a settlement of such claims, it will be just as difficult for the claimants to secure impartial justice from the courts or other authorities of the warring states in the very nice cases wherein the dispensers of justice, in spite of their fairness and learning, may not escape the influence of subjective impressions.

On the other hand, the whole attention of the governments concerned will be so deeply absorbed in the settlement of questions of vital consequence and of a more general order, that private interests injured by the present war will surely be overlooked.

These are the reasons which have led the Royal Government to consider whether a joint and timely action of the neutral states that are confronted by the same difficulties as the Royal Government in the matter of protecting the interests of their subjects might not bring the belligerents to accept a reference of all such cases to an international authority offering every guarantee of impartial justice whereby every unavoidable friction growing out of a settlement of the said cases by the interested parties would be forestalled.

The Second Conference of The Hague had designated the International Prize Court as that authority. The present war affords a unique opportunity to put such a tribunal into operation. The step would be amply warranted by the large number of cases of this nature accumulated after so long a war.

The convention of the Second Conference of The Hague on the subject, which has not yet been ratified, had determined the jurisdiction, organization, and membership of the said court. It would then suffice to urge its ratification and its signature by the states that have not yet signed it, and the appointment of the judges to enable claimants to apply to it, after the war, as easily as to ordinary courts.

The Royal Government, however, cannot take the initiative of the preliminary negotiations required for an agreement to that effect with the neutral governments and of the negotiations with the belligerent states, as it believes that the United States is marked for that part, and on more general considerations such as its being a great maritime power with a vast merchant marine and a nation entitled to a permanent judge under the Hague convention, and furthermore, because the initiative in bringing the proposition of an international prize court is in a high degree that of the United States.

The Royal Government would stand ready to lend every requisite assistance in any steps that the Government of the United States might be inclined to take.

Washington , August 29, 1916 .
[Received August 31.]

The Department of State to the Greek Legation

Memorandum

The Government of the United States has received the memorandum of the Royal Legation of Greece, dated August 29, 1916, suggesting that the United States propose to the belligerent powers the institution of an international prize court, as provided for in the convention of the Second Hague Conference on that subject.

The Government of the United States has given careful attention to the considerations set forth by the Royal Government in behalf of the action proposed by it, and, while the Government of the United States agrees in principle with the Government of Greece as to the institution of such an international prize court and believes that it would be acceptable to many powers, both neutral and belligerent, to have such a court established, the Government of the United States feels that the present is not an opportune time to broach the subject to the powers engaged in the present war. The Government of the United States is the more inclined to this opinion in view of the fact, as is evident from the history of the endeavors to establish such a court, that the convention relating to the organization and establishment of an international prize court, though signed by the representatives of the powers at the Second Hague Conference, was never ratified by them and never became effective because of the apparent desire of certain of the principal maritime powers that the law to be applied by such an international court be agreed upon and codified before the convention creating the court became operative. As is well known the attempts in this direction failed for various reasons which it is unnecessary to enumerate here, and the international prize court convention, as a consequence, remains unratified. As the obstacles, which have up to the present rendered it impossible or at least inexpedient to put this convention into effect, still exist, and as it is understood that most of the maritime powers engaged in the present conflict have not only repudiated the codification attempted by the London Conference of 1908-9, but have announced that this codification was incomplete and inadequate, the Government of the United States on account of this situation regrets to state that in its opinion to act upon the suggestion of the Royal Government at the present time would accomplish no actual result and might embarrass future action looking toward the same end. The Government of the United States is led to this conclusion the more reluctantly on account of its deep interest, which it has so frequently manifested, in the avoidance or settlement of international disputes by means of judicial proceedings before tribunals composed of impartial and disinterested jurists.

Washington , September 11, 1916 .