800.6363/146
The Netherlands Chargé (De Beaufort) to the Secretary of State
Sir: The attention of the Netherland Government has been drawn to the report, made under date of May 14th last by the Department of State to the Senate in response to Senate Resolution 331 and having reference to the prospecting, acquiring and developing of petroleum lands by citizens of the United States in countries other than the United States.
In this report, as published in Senate Document No. 272, 66th Congress 2nd Session, an extract is given from a consular report from Soerabaya, Dutch East Indies, containing statements which require, in the opinion of the Netherland Government, some correction and amplification in order to be in full accordance with that Government’s attitude with regard to petroleum mining in the Dutch East Indies.
Acting upon instructions received from the Government at The Hague I have therefore the honour to inform you that article 28 of the Netherland East-Indian Mining Law of 1899, as lastly amended in 1918, stipulates that no concessions are henceforth given for the prospecting etcetera of oil and other bituminous products in the Netherland East Indies but that the Netherland East-Indian Government will either themselves develop the deposits in question or else do so by contract with persons or private companies, having previously obtained legal authorization to do so. By such contracts the persons or companies concerned undertake for a definite period of time to prospect for oil or to develop its production or both on a definite section of land.
The natural persons with whom such contracts can be made are by law required to be Netherland subjects or else to reside in the Netherlands or the Netherland East Indies.
The companies with which this can be done must be incorporated either in the Netherlands or in the Netherland East Indies and must further comply with the provisions of the mining law above cited. According to one of these provisions the majority of the managing and directing boards are to be Netherland subjects or residents of the Netherland East Indies. No limitation, however, is put upon the ownership, the holding, or the control of the stock of such companies.
The transfer to others, by such persons or companies, of the rights and duties, by them acquired through these contracts, can only take place with the full approval of the Dutch East-Indian Government.
Another provision of the law secures for the Dutch East-Indian Government the possibility of stipulating in such contracts the proportion [Page 269] by which they wish to take part in the capital of the company, the fixed contributions which will be due to them according to the value of the amounts of mineral actually produced and a measure of participation in the direction of the company.
From the above it will be seen that American citizens have with respect to the law the same facilities as Netherland subjects to obtain the contracts in question provided they adopt the form of a Netherland or Netherland East-Indian Company.
In conclusion I venture to add that I should be much obliged if the above could be communicated to the authority with whom rest the enactments under the provisions of the Act to promote the mining of coal, phosphate, oil, gas, and sodium (Public Law No. 146).5
Please accept [etc.]
- 41 Stat. 437.↩