File No. 711.5721/23

The Secretary of State to the Minister in Norway ( Schmedeman )

No. 180

Sir: The Department has received your despatch No. 550, of October 30, 1917,2 with regard to the abrogation of certain provisions [Page 6] found in Articles 13 and 14 of the treaty concluded by the Government of the United States with the Government of Sweden and Norway on July 4, 1827, which were affected by the so-called Seamen’s Act of March 4, 1915. You enclose a copy of a note addressed to you by the Norwegian Minister for Foreign Affairs, under date October 29, 1917, from which it appears that the Government of Norway finds itself unable to agree to this Government’s proposals with respect to an understanding as to the elimination of the treaty stipulations in question. In view of the attitude of the Norwegian Government in this matter, the Department desires that you address a note to the Minister for Foreign Affairs in the sense of the following:

Under instructions from my Government, I have the honor to give to the Royal Norwegian Government on behalf of the Government of the United States, the official notification contemplated by Article 19 of the treaty concluded by the Government of the United States with the Government of Sweden and Norway on July 4, 1827, whereby the operation of the treaty will terminate, in accordance with its terms, on ———.

As has been previously pointed out to the Government of Norway, the application of the fundamental principles of the act of Congress, approved March 4, 1915, to alien seamen within the territorial jurisdiction of the United States involved an abrogation of treaty provisions inconsistent therewith. The President, therefore, using the discretion which he considered was granted to him to interpret the act in the sense contemplated by Congress, authorized this Legation to propose an arrangement between the two Governments which would carry out the purpose of the act by the elimination of stipulations in the treaty of July 4, 1827, inconsistent with the act.

It has further been pointed out to the Norwegian Government that, in case no satisfactory understanding could be arrived at for the abrogation of these stipulations, other provisions of the treaty remaining in effect, a solution of the matter could only be found in the denunciation of the treaty in its entirety. It having become clear that the Norwegian Government finds itself unable to acquiesce in any of the proposals submitted to it by my Government with regard to such an understanding, the Government of the United States is therefore under the necessity of denouncing the treaty in its entirety. I have the honor to request that you be good enough to make acknowledgment to me of this notification.

Since the treaty by its Article 19 provides that it shall remain binding for 12 months following notice of denunciation, you will insert in your communication to the Foreign Office containing this notice a date for the termination of the treaty, precisely one year after the date of your note.

I am [etc.]

Robert Lansing
  1. Not printed.