711.562/12
The Netherland Minister (De Graeff) to the Secretary of State
The Minister of the Netherlands presents his compliments to the Honorable the Secretary of State and, acting upon instructions received from his Government, has the honor to inform him that the Royal Government, having taken cognizance of the draft of a Treaty of Amity, Commerce and Consular Eights proposed by the United States Government and submitted to the Royal Government by the note of the Secretary of State of January 9, 1924, wishes to give expression to her satisfaction and appreciation of the efforts of the United States Government to arrive at constructive work in the field of commercial treaties and of the liberal principles that guide her hereby.
This appreciation, however, does not prevent the Royal Netherland Government’s having several objections against the proposed treaty, objections which are raised in a spirit of willingness to cooperate with the United States Government in the direction indicated by her.
In the first place the Royal Netherland Government in principle is not in favor of highly detailed treaties if not strictly necessary. If treaties intended to remain in force for a length of time enter into various details instead of limiting themselves to the basic principles of the understanding, there is in the opinion of the Royal Government, always a danger that their effect be contrary to that which they have in view, that in concrete questions which may arise they might easily cause controversies instead of avoiding them. Furthermore, detailed clauses sometimes go farther than conditions in the two countries demand. Even if such clauses could be accepted with regard to one certain country it would be inadvisable to have such stipulations inserted in a Treaty as the most-favored-nation-clause perhaps might render such stipulations applicable also with regard to other countries with respect to which they could not be acceptable. For Colonial Powers as the Netherlands a detailed treaty, moreover, always offers the difficulty that some clauses are undesirable for the Mother Country as they would stamp her more or less with backwardness, and other clauses could go too far where the Colonies are concerned, where the conditions are not yet developed in the same degree as in the Mother Country.
Besides objections of this more general character against the system which has been followed by the drafting of the treaty in question, the Royal Government has objections against several special clauses of the draft which in the course of further negotiations may be brought forward. For the present it seems sufficient to point out that for instance Article VII would put the Netherlands in a considerably [Page 481] less favorable position than has been acquired by the treaty of August 26, 1852.
In connection with her objections against the system of the drafted treaty as well as against several special clauses thereof, the Royal Netherland Government foresees that negotiations about a more or less explicit commercial and consular treaty between the United States Government and the Royal Netherland Government will take a considerable length of time. Therefore the Royal Government being in full accordance with the desire of the United States Government to lay a foundation for the relations between both Governments as far as Commerce and Consular Rights are concerned, suggests that for the present time both parties satisfy themselves with entering into a simple agreement—either in the shape of an optima forma treaty or in the form of an exchange of notes—substantially limited to a reciprocal warrant of unconditional-most-favored-nation-treatment and safeguarding the mutual rights of both countries as agreed upon by the above mentioned Treaty of 1852.
Jonkheer de Graeff would be glad to learn from the Secretary of State whether this suggestion of the Royal Government meets with the approval of the United States Government.