File No. 711. 5914/150
Minister Egan to the Secretary of State
Copenhagen, September 26, 1916, 5 p.m.
352. Your 153, August 24, 11 a.m., and our 337, September 2, noon. Foreign Minister informs me:
The sole and exclusive privilege of supplying ships in St. Thomas harbor with liquid fuel has never been conferred on the West India Company.
In a written communication of April 16, 1913, from the Minister of Finance to the West India Company, of which communication a copy has been submitted to the Government of the United States by the Foreign Office, the Minister for Foreign Affairs stated “that the Ministry—within a period as to the extent of which the company is requested to submit a proposal, and provided that the company’s plant proves sufficient to accommodate the expected traffic—will be willing to promise not to grant concession to other companies to carry on commercial or industrial enterprises or shipping trade in St. Thomas Harbor.” The Ministry has not been called upon to give such promise, nor has it given any, and even if given it would not, according to the terms cited above, confer any privilege for the sale of liquid fuel but would only be a privilege to establish plants in St. Thomas Harbor of the kinds mentioned above.
No agreement has been made with the West India Company regarding the future water supply of Charlotte Amalie and St. Thomas Harbor.
The West India Company has not been especially exempted from paying dues but has, like other concerns, been granted opportunities for the payment of harbor dues in accordance with Section 30, Subsection 2, of Ordinance Number 24 of August 6, 1914, regarding payment of duty and harbor dues in St. Thomas and St. Jan and supplement of February 25, 1916, to the same ordinance; in addition thereto the Colonial Government has granted the company exemption from payment of duties and conceded to it the right to store goods in warehouses without payment of any dues on certain conditions, in pursuance of Section 7, Subsections 3 and 7 of Act Number 64 of April 1, 1914, regarding exemption from the payment of customs duty and harbor dues in St. Thomas and St. Jan. Finally attention is called to Ordinance Number 16 of April 1, 1913, regarding exemption from payment of duty and harbor dues for materials imported for the establishment plants in and near St. Thomas harbor. As stated before the West India Company has never been granted other concessions than such as might have been granted and actually have been granted to others.
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