File No. 711.5914/63
Minister Egan to the Secretary of State
Copenhagen, June 30, 1916, 4 p.m.
268. Continuation of our 267, June 29, 4 p.m. The Danish Government have now drafted a new counterproject for a convention respecting the transfer of the Danish West Indian Islands, in which to the greatest possible extent regard has been taken to the original draft of the United States Government in connection with the Danish proposals which have been accepted by the said Government.
The Danish Government waive the claim that the convention should be made dependent on the vote of the inhabitants on the islands ceded, and they further waive their claim that by the convention itself the inhabitants should immediately be guaranteed full American citizenship and exemption from customs duties in the commercial intercourse with the United States.
The Danish Government have noted with satisfaction the statement of the United States Government that every facility for the rejuvenation of the commerce of the islands will be given them, such as has been the case with the present insular possessions of the United States, and the Danish Government, therefore, take it for granted that the inhabitants of the islands, in the intervening period, until the above-mentioned rights to their full extent can be granted to them, will at least obtain the same privileges in this respect as the inhabitants of other similar territories within the Union.
Finally, the Danish Government expressly state that they have not given any other concessions, grants, etc., on the isles than those which have already been communicated to the United States Government and they have in the new counterproject reinserted Article II of the original draft of the United States. Respecting the different articles in the new counterproject, the following is remarked:
- Article I is equal to Article I in the original draft of the United States.
- Article II is equal to Article II in the United States original draft, the third sentence having, however, been worded in the form accepted by the United States Government.
- Article III is equal to Article II in the first Danish counterproject to such extent as it has been accepted by the United States Government.
The further particulars desired by the United States Government respecting paragraph four are enclosed herewith:
- 1.
- The original concession of the seventh of July, 1912, with the accompanying map;
- 2.
- Public notice of thirty-first of January, 1913, respecting the annulment of the original concession, and;
- 3.
- Decree of the first of April, 1913, exempting from customs and ships’ dues materials imported for works in Saint Thomas Harbor.
The stipulation contained in Article III, paragraph 4, of the United States original draft has become superfluous by the enclosed law number 68 of the 24th of April, 1903, respecting Sainte Croix Fallessukkerkogerier, which expressly states that at the fulfilment of the agreement mentioned in the law the shareholders in the Sainte Croix Fallessukkerkogerier have been fully satisfied in respect to all claims, including all claims against the Saint Thomas colonial treasury on account of the interest guarantee incumbent on the said treasury in virtue of the Royal West Indian decree of the 16th of June, 1876.
Respecting the bills of credit mentioned in section H in the Danish counter-project, part of which has now been left out, the following is remarked:
Formerly Danish West Indian bills of credit, issued by the Danish Treasury, which bore no interest, circulated in the Danish West Indian Islands.
These bills of credit were issued in virtue of a Royal decree of the 4th of April 1849. They were only in the Danish West Indian Colonies valid at their face value, so that they should be received in the paying offices in the islands as ready money and payment. They were unredeemable, were not legal tender, but were received without the compulsion of the law between man and man.
When on the 20th of June 1904 the Minister of Finance in virtue of the law of the 29th of March 1904, gave a concession for the establishment of a Danish West Indian Bank of Issue, which for a period of thirty years has the monopoly to issue in the islands notes which are redeemable at bearer’s request with gold coin and which in all public paying offices shall be accepted as legal tender, a promise was given to the Bank in virtue of Article VI in the said concession that the Danish West Indian bills of credit should be recalled with preclusive effect within a certain term not shorter than one year. This took place in this manner, that the term expired at the end of the month of April 1907, (see public notice number 6 of the 5th of March 1906). The Bank was bound to redeem the bills of credit with the Bank’s own notes and was not allowed to put then in circulation again. On the other hand the Bank has a right to use the bills in payment of its yearly tax to the Danish Treasury. This tax will now in virtue of the convention pass to the United States, but the Danish Treasury will undertake to redeem the bills of credit redeemed by the Bank, and which, according to the Bank’s monthly balance of the 31st of March 1916, amounts to 442,610 Fr.
In Article IV the sentence “but the cession, etc.,” to “formal delivery” has been reinserted. It is, however, the desire of the Danish Government that formal delivery shall take place but it may take place without delay in accordance with a telegraphic instruction to the Governor from the Danish Government.
Article V is equal to Article V in the United States original draft with the alteration accepted by the United States.
Article VI is equal to Article V in the first Danish counterproject with the exception of the last paragraph. This is the only point where the Danish Government have not seen their way to accept the proposals of the United States Government. The Danish wording is in strict conformity with Article III in the prior convention of the 24th of January 1902 with the exception that the period of option, in conformity with the proposal of the United States Government, has been shortened to one year, and that a stipulation has been added respecting the deposit of the declaration of option for children under eighteen years.
During the negotiations which were conducted between the two Governments prior to the Convention of the 24th of April 1902 the reasons which made Article VI in the United States draft unacceptable to the Danish Government were so fully stated that it would be unnecessary to repeat them here. These reasons being still valid, in view of the fact that American citizenship has not been guaranteed to the inhabitants of the islands through the convention, that the Danish Government are not in possession of the necessary material to form an accurate judgment of how the legal status of the inhabitants will be after the transfer, and that by Article VI the inhabitants are not even given as favorable [Page 627] a legal status as secured to them by Article II in the Danish-American Convention of Commerce of the 26th of April 1826, the Danish Government, therefore, hope that the United States Government also now will appreciate the weight of these reasons and will accept a wording which they have already accepted on the prior occasion.
Article VII is equal to Article VII in the United States original draft.
Article VIII is equal to Article VIII in the United States original draft with the modifications accepted by them in the first Danish counterproject’s Article VI.
Article IX is equal to Article IX in the United States original draft.
Article X is equal to Article VII in the first Danish counterproject accepted by the United States Government.
Article XI is equal to Article VIII in the first Danish counterproject accepted by the United States Government.
Respecting Greenland the United States will at the date of the signature of the convention give a declaration in conformity with the draft previously submitted to the United States Government by the Danish Government.
The Danish Government finally beg to recall to the memory of the United States Government the promise given to the Danish Minister at Washington by the American Secretary of State to the effect that they would interest American capital in the islands to release private Danish monetary interests.
The new counterproject drafted in conformity with the above has been sent to the Danish Minister at Washington in the Danish and English languages. The Danish Government agree with the United States Government that the present moment would be opportune for the conclusion of this convention, and should the United States Government be able to accept the draft now submitted, it will be possible to give the Danish Minister at Washington telegraphic powers in the course of eight days to sign the convention in the name of the Danish Government together with the American plenipotentiary.
Copenhagen, the 28th of June, 1916.