File No. 711.5914/98
[Untitled]
Copenhagen, August 16, 1916, 1 p.m.
306. Referring to the Legation’s number 303. Minister of Finance officially gives the following answer in writing to my question whether the permissions mentioned in the communications from the Ministry of Finance of October 2 and October 11, 1912, have been canceled by the official order of January 31, 1913:
The implied promise contained in the communications of October 2 and October 11, 1912, from the Ministry of Finance to the company for the use of an area within St. Thomas harbor is not of individual selvstaending importance. The said implied promise is embodied in a communication in writing of January 18, 1913, to the West India Company of which communication a copy has been previously submitted.
We enclose a copy of the ordinance of April 1 mentioned in the communication, by which materials imported for the purpose of the improvements of St. Thomas harbor are exempted from duties and dues.
Aforementioned ordinance follows:
Amalienborg, April 1, 1913. We Christian the tenth by the Grace of God, King of Denmark, etc., hereby make known: the Colonial Council of St. Thomas and St. Jan have adopted and we have hereby given our consent to the following ordinance:
The Colonial Government is hereby authorized within a period of ten years reckoned from the first day of January 1913 to grant exemptions from duty on every kind of materials, inter alia working utensils and machines, which are imported to St. Thomas for use in the considerable improvements which it is intended to carry out there to supply and facilitate vessels touching at the said port, or otherwise to further the shipping trade of the said harbor.
The Ministry of Finance in answer to my further questions have written as follows:
The West India Company have by a communication in writing of January 18, 1913, been allowed to reclaim certain areas in St. Thomas harbor and to construct basins there in consequence of which—as also mentioned in the communication have been [apparent omission] unlimited possession of the said areas, no right of preemption being reserved to the Government.
In a communication of April 16, 1913, from the Ministry of Finance to the West India Company they state that “The Ministry shall be willing within a certain time, as to the duration of which the company is requested to propose a date, to promise to abstain from granting concessions to other companies to carry on commercial or industrial enterprises or to construct plants for shipping purposes in St. Thomas harbor, provided that the plants and facilities established by the company will be sufficient.” The company have not since proposed anytime within which no other concessions should be granted and consequently the Ministry has not had any occasion to fulfill the promise it was willing to give according to said communication.