File No. 311.654At8/7
The Italian Ambassador ( Macchi di Cellere) to the Secretary of State
[Received October 4.]
Mr. Secretary of State: On September 12 last, by a letter addressed to your excellency, Signor Brambilla, Counselor of the Royal Embassy, had the honor to inform you that although the Italian consular officer had officially declared to the Federal magistrate that the Italian Steamer Attualità was a steamship requisitioned by the King’s Government and therefore was not attachable, the said steamer, pursuant to the application of the owner of the Greek S. S. Mina, was held under a writ of attachment issued by the District Court of Norfolk, Va.
The principle that a steamship requisitioned by a friendly government must not be liable to attachment being an accepted principle that never was questioned by the Government of the United States, I ventured to represent to your excellency in the above-mentioned letter that requisitioned Italian steamers had been and (as evidenced by the Attualità case) continued to be subjected to attachment by the American judiciary. I, therefore begged your excellency to be pleased to acquaint the Federal Department of Justice with the fact that had been brought to your notice, with a view to an early release of the Attualità. And I asked at the same time that you kindly suggest some procedure that would make it possible to protect requisitioned Italian steamers in the enjoyment of their rights as well as to avoid the considerable delays and the no less considerable loss entailed on the King’s Government by the attachment in American ports of steamers requisitioned by it.
Your excellency will readily understand that I must be somewhat grieved at finding that I have not up to date had the honor to receive an answer to the above-mentioned note of September 12 and, instead, that the steamship Attualità is still held under attachment. Neither the official attestations of the Royal consular officer nor the subsequent [Page 678] official declaration of this Embassy made in the second note of September 18 to your excellency1 have availed to prevent the attachment being brought into court for a hearing. And while, on September 23, the District Court of Norfolk, upon an argument of the cause, decided it had no “jurisdiction” over the steamer and ordered its release, the Court of Appeals has stayed execution of that judgment and, in turn, set the 5th of this month for the date of a further hearing, thereby leaving open, before all, the possibility of an eventual denial of the unquestionable right of the King’s Government.
The importance of the statement I have the honor to lay before you can not escape your excellency when considering the painful impression this attitude of the American judiciary is bound to create among the officials of the Kingdom and would create on public opinion in Italy, if known. The S. S. Attualità, which is not liable to attachment on account of its being requisitioned by the King’s Government, has been detained under an attachment in an American port since the 9th of September. It is still subject to the judgment of the court. The Italian Government is suffering considerable loss therefrom. The Royal Embassy had the honor to bring the case to your excellency’s notice as early as the 12th of September, and asked at the same time a suggestion as to the procedure which might insure to the King’s Government for the future the enjoyment in American ports of the rights that appertain to it in the matter of steamers belonging to the state. It was all the more necessary and urgent to define such a procedure as cases of attempted attachment may recur at any moment. I have not yet had the honor to receive an answer to that note.
Your excellency will therefore indulge my again drawing your benevolent attention to the case and again appealing to your authoritative intercession for measures to be applied now and suggestions likely to smooth in the future the way to a practical recognition of a sovereign right of the Italian State.
I thank your excellency therefore in advance and renew to you [etc.]