File No. 656.119/396
The Secretary of State to the Netherland Chargé ( De Beaufort )
Sir: I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of your note of April 20, in which you inform me of the desire of the Netherlands Government to secure from the Government of the United States formal assurances that from March 20 no vessel flying the Netherlands flag will be seized or detained in a port of the United States.
In this connection I have the honor to inform you that the Government of the United States considers itself bound by the assurances given to the Netherlands Government by the British Government according to which the Associated Governments undertook not to requisition Netherlands ships leaving a Netherlands port after March 20.1
I am sure you will not fail to realize the impossible situation which would at once be created, should this Government give unqualified assurances against the detention, as distinguished from the seizure, of any Netherlands ship in a United States port after March 20. The giving of such assurances would nullify, so far as Netherlands ships are concerned, the regulations which this Government has adopted to enable it to supervise shipping touching at United States ports. It is to be presumed, however, that the Netherlands Government in making its request for formal assurances against seizure and detention of Netherlands vessels does not intend to suggest the making of exceptions to those rules and regulations governing shipping, the adoption of which has been imposed upon the United States by the war. I trust, therefore, that the assurances to refrain from using Netherlands ships leaving Netherlands port after March 20 without the consent of the owners, which this Government regards as being unequivocally binding upon it, will satisfy the Netherlands Government and will serve to allay any ill-founded fears which may have been entertained in this connection.
Accept [etc.]
- In a note of May 18 the Secretary of State added that “the expression ‘Netherlands ports’ as used in my note of April 26, includes Netherlands colonial ports.” (File No. 656.119/477.)↩