196.6/1071
The Swedish Legation to the Department of State 25
Memorandum
The attention of the Swedish Legation has been drawn to a bill, “S. 2945—An Act relating to the payment of advance wages and [Page 835] allotments in respect of seamen on foreign vessels, and making further provision for carrying out the purposes of the Seamen’s Act, approved March 4, 1915,” which bill passed the Senate April 20, 1928.
On perusal of the bill the Swedish Legation finds that it contains stipulations which, should the bill become law, would gravely affect Swedish shipping interests, inasmuch as a contract legally entered into between Swedes on a Swedish vessel while in Sweden would fall within the jurisdiction of the Courts of the United States. Such a law would not be confined to limits over which a law-making power has jurisdiction and would therefore, according to the Swedish Government’s view, be contrary to fundamental principles of law commonly acknowledged among nations.
- Copy transmitted to the Chairman of the Committee on Merchant Marine and Fisheries, House of Representatives, May 4, 1928.↩