File No. 711.5721/23
The Secretary of State to the Minister in Norway ( Schmedeman)
Sir: The Department has received your telegram of February 9, 1918,1 in which you quote a note from the Norwegian Minister for Foreign Affairs respecting the denunciation of the treaty concluded July 4, 1827, by the Government of the United States with the Government of Sweden and Norway. The Department desires that you make reply to the Minister for Foreign Affairs in the sense of the following:
I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of your note of February 5, 1918, with regard to the abrogation of certain provisions in 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 acknowledge the receipt of my note of February 1 [2] last, in which, in behalf of my Government, I gave notice of the denunciation of this treaty because of the apparent inability [Page 9] of your Government to accede to any of this Government’s proposals with regard to the abrogations of the particular stipulations of the treaty affected by the act of March 4, 1915. And you call attention to the proposal contained in your note of October 29 last, relative to this matter and request that you be informed as to my Government’s objection to that proposal.
You state that your Government is now willing to consent to my Government’s original proposal respecting the abrogation of the second paragraph of Article 13 and all of Article 14 of the treaty.
The following is the language of your note of October 29 last, setting forth your Government’s proposal just mentioned:
The stipulations contained in the second paragraph of Article 13 of the treaty relative to the right of Norwegian consuls in the United States of America to exercise exclusive jurisdiction without the intervention of the local authorities are subjected to the modification resulting from the fact that Norway has consented to this right being considered as abandoned to the extent that it would otherwise be in conflict with the provisions forming part of Section 4 of the act of Congress of March 4, 1915, entitled the “Seamen’s Act.” It is understood that the arrangement shall not imply the consent of the Norwegian Government to the application to Norwegian vessels of Section 4 referred to.
Since Section 4 of the act of March 4, 1915, is applicable to Norwegian vessels as well as to all other merchant vessels, American and foreign alike, in ports of the United States, my Government could not regard as satisfactory any understanding with the Norwegian Government which contained a reservation such as that indicated in the last sentence of the above-quoted abstract from your note of October 29 last, respecting “the consent of the Norwegian Government to the application to Norwegian vessels “of Section 4 of the act of March 4, 1915. And since it seemed clear that no explicit understanding could be arrived at, the Government of the United States felt itself obliged to denounce the treaty in its entirety.
With regard to the statement in your note of February 5 to the effect that the Norwegian Government is now willing to consent to the proposal originally made by the Government of the United States relative to the abrogation of certain provisions of the treaty of July 4, 1827, I am directed by my Government to say that it prefers that the notice of denunciation of this treaty contained in my note of February 2 shall stand, and that the treaty shall terminate in accordance therewith. I am further directed to express the desire of my Government to take up at an appropriate time negotiations looking to the conclusion of a modern treaty of commerce and navigation that shall be responsive to the interests of both Governments.
I am [etc.]
- Not printed. See despatch No. 679 of February 10, 1918.↩