441.11C881/–
The Second Assistant Secretary of State (Adee) to the Chargé in Great Britain (Wright)
Sir: Referring to your telegram No. 480 of March [19,] 1920, relative to the release of American owned goods detained by the British authorities during the war, the Department encloses herewith for your consideration a copy of a letter dated March 17, 1920, received from the Crucible Steel Company of America, of Pittsburgh Pennsylvania,47 relative to its claim for the return of £760.4.6, paid to the British Government for a consignment consisting of 87,708 pounds of steel forwarded on April 24, 1915, by their Agents to Liverpool on the British vessel Den of Airlie. It appears that the British authorities seized these goods as prize, and that the claimant [Page 640] purchased them for the above amount when they were sold by the Prize Court. It further appears that a suit was brought in the Prize Court to recover the proceeds of the sale of this steel, but that the Court decided adversely on the grounds that the goods were destined for an enemy country; that they were the property of enemies, and that they were found on a British vessel. As the British Government has agreed to release goods which were intended for Germany and which were detained in England, this concern is of the opinion that the proceeds of the sale of these goods should be returned to them, in lieu of the goods.
In this connection the Department encloses herewith a copy of a despatch, dated March 2, 1920, received from the American Consul General at London, England, dealing with the detention of American owned goods by the British Government during the war.47 Your attention is invited to the statement of the Consul General that “the arrangements described in the letter from the President of the Prize Court contemplate that release shall be operated ‘except in cases where the Court has made a declaration that the goods are enemy owned’”. The Procurator General, thus far, has ignored the statement of Viscount Grey on March 15, 1915,48 to the American Government that “they restrict their claim to stoppage of cargoes destined for or coming from enemy territory” and holds that seized goods, or their proceeds if “enemy owned” according to the law of Prize (or so pronounced by the Prize Court) are not releasable although they may be neutral property according to municipal law.
You are instructed to investigate this matter, and if you see no objection thereto, you will bring the matter to the attention of the Foreign Office with a view to ascertaining whether the British authorities will now release the funds in question. You will also inquire whether the British Government will refuse to release American owned goods seized under the Order in Council of March 11, 1915, on the ground that they may be considered enemy owned under a technical interpretation of Prize law, when in fact they are American property in accordance with applicable principles of municipal law and the loss involved will fall on the American owners.
You will submit a detailed report regarding this matter to the Department.
I am [etc.]
- Not printed.↩
- See p. 636.↩
- See telegram no. 1798, Mar. 15, 1915, from the Ambassador in Great Britain, Foreign Relations, 1915, supp., p. 143.↩