File No. 763.72112Sa/78
The Danish Minister ( Brun ) to the Secretary of State
[Received September 25.]
Sir: I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of your reply-note (No. 486) of September 7, regarding safe conducts to be issued to Danish merchant ships by agreement with the Central Powers.2
[Page 1105]I brought at once the contents of your said note to the knowledge of the Danish Government, and the Minister of Foreign Affairs has now directed me to submit the following answer for your consideration:
The system of safe conducts is in the opinion of the Danish Government not a system of control but a measure rendered absolutely necessary in order to avoid that Danish ships should be arbitrarily captured and conducted into German ports for examination, in accordance with the principles adopted by an amendment of April 24, 1918, to the German prize regulations of September 30, 1909, § 55.c.
I beg to enclose a copy of the German Official Gazette No. 57 of April 24 [27], 1918, containing the said amendment.
In translation the amendment says:
A neutral vessel is furthermore to be considered as sailing in the interest of the warfare of the enemy, provided the circumstances do not prove the contrary, if the country, whose flag the vessel is entitled to carry, has concluded an agreement with an enemy country for the turning over of tonnage, or if the greater part of the merchant fleet of the neutral country actually in use sails for the enemy.
The right of examination being accorded to any belligerent country, it would be useless to protest against capture and examination, and it became a necessity to adopt the system of safe conducts. As a matter of fact, whenever a Danish vessel was sailing without a safe conduct the vessels of the German Navy would use any pretext for seizing the ship for examination so that almost every Danish ship found without safe conduct was captured. Generally these ships were sooner or later released again, but their detention in German ports caused very great losses to the owners. The actual usefulness of the tonnage at the disposal of Denmark would also be considerably lowered if such proceedings were to continue, and we would furthermore have to count with the eventuality that our vessels and their cargoes would on one pretext or another be detained for months awaiting prize-court decisions and perhaps finally be condemned.
It should also be understood that safe conduct for ships from overseas ports will be issued either by Danish officials or German officials, who are without connection with their own country. The last-named facts alone would appear sufficiently to prove that the system is not intended to be one of control. The fundamental idea of the arrangement is to obtain an absolute guarantee against being seized and brought into a port of examination for all Danish ships, who are sailing in trades of Danish interest, including the voyages for Belgian Relief and Switzerland and, on the outward trip from Denmark, the voyages of the ships from a port in North America to a neutral port in South America.
[Page 1106]This system will create safety and security for the shipping of Denmark and a guarantee to the effect that a part of the Danish merchant fleet will remain intact.
The Danish Government, furthermore, can not admit that the acceptance of such a safe conduct can deprive a vessel of its neutral character. The United States and the Governments of the Entente Powers have agreed that part of the Danish tonnage be reserved for Danish interests. Through the system of safe conducts the German Government has guaranteed unhindered voyages for this tonnage, when the ships are sailing in the neutral trades agreed upon.
The ships do not have to submit to other conditions than those mentioned in the arrangement, which have only the purpose to prove the neutral trade of the vessel.
With regard to the special points on which you desired further information, I am authorized to state the following:
The expression “danger-zone” refers to the danger-zone as now declared. Should this zone be extended, new negotiations would have to be undertaken between Denmark and Germany.
The prohibited list (or bannwarenlist) means the German contraband list in force at any given time.
The voyages referred to under No. 4 of my note to you of August 291 include only voyages from Denmark to enemy ports outside of the danger zone.
I trust that the above explanation will meet with your approval and satisfy you with regard to any points which at first were not made fully clear to you, and that you will now be able to see your way to concede the necessity for Denmark of the intended arrangement and its true character, so that we may count on the acquiescence of the Government of the United States in facilitating the carrying into effect of the plan.
I have the honor [etc.]