File No. 600.119/223a
Proclamation by the President
By the President of the United States of America
A PROCLAMATION
Whereas Congress has enacted, and the President has on the fifteenth day of June, 1917, approved a law which contains the following provisions:
“Whenever during the present war the President shall find that the public safety shall so require, and shall make proclamation there if, it shall be unlawful to export from or ship from or take out of the United States to any country named in such proclamation any article or articles mentioned in such proclamation, except at such time or times, and under such regulations and orders, and subject to such limitations and exceptions as the President shall prescribe, until otherwise ordered by the President or by Congress: Provided, however, that no preference shall be given to the ports of one State over those of another.
“Any person who shall export, ship, or take out, or deliver or attempt to deliver for export, shipment, or taking out, any article in violation of this title, or of any regulation or order made hereunder, shall be fined not more than $10,000, or, if a natural person, imprisoned for not more than two years, or both; and any article so delivered or exported, shipped, or taken out, or so attempted to be delivered or exported, shipped, or taken out, shall be seized and forfeited to the United States; and any officer, director, or agent of a corporation who participates in any such violation shall be liable to like fine or imprisonment, or both.
“Whenever there is reasonable cause to believe that any vessel, domestic or foreign, is about to carry out of the United States any article or articles in violation of the provisions of this title, the collector of customs for the district in which such vessel is located is hereby authorized and empowered, subject to review by the Secretary of Commerce, to refuse clearance to any such vessel, domestic or foreign, for which clearance is required by law, and by formal notice [Page 1084] served upon the owners, master, or person or persons in command or charge of any domestic vessel for which clearance is not required by law, to forbid the departure of such vessel from the port, and it shall thereupon be unlawful for such vessel to depart. Whoever, in violation of any of the provisions of this section shall take, or attempt to take, or authorize the taking of any such vessel out of port or from the jurisdiction of the United States, shall be fined not more than $10,000 or imprisoned not more than two years, or both; and, in addition, such vessel, her tackle, apparel, furniture, equipment, and her forbidden cargo shall be forfeited to the United States.”
And whereas, the public safety requires that succor shall be prevented from reaching the enemy;
Now, therefore I, Woodrow Wilson, President of the United States of America, do hereby proclaim to all whom it may concern that, except at such time or times and under such regulations and orders and subject to such limitations and exceptions as the President shall prescribe, until otherwise ordered by the President or by Congress, the following articles, namely: Coal, coke, fuel oils, kerosene and gasoline, including bunkers; food grains, flour and meal therefrom, fodder and feeds, meat and fats; pig iron, steel billets, ship plates and structural shapes, scrap iron and scrap steel; ferro-manganese; fertilizers; arms, ammunition and explosives, shall not, on and after the fifteenth day of July, 1917, be carried out of or exported from the United States or its territorial possessions to Abyssinia, Afghanistan, Albania, Argentina, Austria-Hungary, Belgium, her colonies, possessions or protectorates, Bolivia, Brazil, Bulgaria, China, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Cuba, Denmark, her colonies, possessions or protectorates, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Egypt, France, her colonies, possessions or protectorates, Germany, her colonies, possessions or protectorates, Great Britain, her colonies, possessions or protectorates, Greece, Guatemala, Haiti, Honduras, Italy, her colonies, possessions or protectorates, Japan, Liberia, Leichtenstein, Luxemburg, Mexico, Monaco, Montenegro, Morocco, Nepal, Nicaragua, The Netherlands, her colonies, possessions, or protectorates, Norway, Oman, Panama, Paraguay, Persia, Peru, Portugal, her colonies, possessions, or protectorates, Roumania, Russia, Salvador, San Marino, Serbia, Siam, Spain, her colonies, possessions or protectorates, Sweden, Switzerland, Uruguay, Venezuela, or Turkey.
The orders and regulations from time to time prescribed will be administered by and under the authority of the Secretary of Commerce, from whom licenses, in conformity with the said orders and regulations, will issue.
In Witness Whereof I have hereunto set my hand and caused the seal of the United States to be affixed.
[seal]
By the President,
Frank L. Polk,
Acting Secretary of State