File No. 656.119/614
The Netherland Chargé ( De Beaufort) to the Secretary of State
[Received May 27.]
Sir: I have not failed to convey to the Netherland Government the contents of your letter of the 15th instant, No. 16, by which you inform me that the Government of the United States adheres to its position set out in its memorandum of April 26, 1918,1 and cannot consent to supply bunkers to send the steamships Jason, Cornelis, and Amsteldyk to Argentina and thence to the Netherlands with grain.
With a view to this communication the Netherland Government wishes clearly to define how it understands the position of these ships.
The United States Government has repeatedly declared that it made use of its right as a belligerent, to wit the jus angariae, only to requisition neutral ships within its jurisdiction. The proclamation of the President of March 20 last states without reserve that his authority only extends to ships within the jurisdiction of the United States. As the three above-mentioned ships were not within the jurisdiction of the United States at the time of the seizure, they are excluded therefrom and remain at the disposal of the Netherland Government in order to be used in accordance with the desires of that Government. Following this train of thought my Government informed me of its desire to send these ships to Argentina to lift on its behalf a cargo of grain. The United States Government replies to the request to supply these ships with the bunkers required for this voyage with a reference to its memorandum of April 26, which [Page 1496] contains no clear indication as to the exact position of the ships in question.
Resuming, I beg to say that my Government considers these vessels as being exclusively at its disposal from the time their respective charters to the United States Government have expired.
I am instructed to inform you of my Government’s standpoint as set forth above and which—judging from the presidential proclamation—would in this matter correspond with the standpoint of the Government of the United States. Furthermore my Government wishes me to observe to you in this connection that by the wholesale requisition of Netherland ships the Government of the United States has taken possession of a far larger amount of tonnage than would have been placed at the disposal of the Associated Governments on the basis of the agreement negociated between these Governments and the Netherland Government.
I shall be glad to convey to my Government any observation you may wish to make in regard to the subject of this letter.
Please accept [etc.]
- Not printed.↩