File No. 656.119/410
The Acting Secretary of State to the Minister in the Netherlands ( Garrett)
1391. You are instructed to communicate the following to the Netherlands Minister of Foreign Affairs in reply to the note the text of which was contained in your 2457, May 4:2
I have transmitted to my Government your note, dated May 3, in which you communicated certain observations of interested parties upon the terms of employment offered by the United States to owners of Holland vessels recently put into service for war purposes. I am instructed by my Government to reply to these observations as follows:
My Government cannot undertake to pay monthly compensation for the use of the vessels, upon the scale communicated to you in my note of April 13, except in dollars or pounds sterling. My Government’s proposal has been that the hire be paid monthly, in the United States, in American currency. Since the monthly rate was stated in shillings, a fixed exchange rate of $4.75 per pound sterling was proposed, in order that the stated rate could be conveniently expressed in dollars. It has never been contemplated, either in previous negotiations looking to a voluntary charter of Dutch vessels, nor in agreements for chartering vessels of other neutral nations, that the United States should assume the risk of fluctuations in the exchange rate in connection with the payment of hire.
[Page 1500]Taking up seriatim the other points mentioned in your note, I am instructed to say: (a) that the rate of hire offered is net, free from taxes and commissions; (b) that the deadweight of the vessel will be as certified by the owner, but subject to verification on a basis of actual performance; (c) that the intent of paragraph 5 of the terms communicated to you on April 13 was to offer an option of the value of the vessel or replacement in kind; (d) that payment for bunkers, stores, and supplies, and private property of captains, officers, engineers, and crew will be made as soon as inventories and appraisals can be agreed upon with the shipowners.