196.6/1112
The British Embassy to the Department of State
Memorandum
On April 26th, 1928, a memorandum was left at the Department of [Page 809] State17 relating to Senate bill No. 2945 regarding the “payment of advance wages and allotments in respect of seamen in foreign vessels, and making further provision for carrying out the proposals of the United States Seamen’s Act,”17a which bill had been passed by the Senate without debate three days previously. The bill in question, having never received the sanction of both Houses of Congress, is now again before the Senate renumbered S. 314.18
In the memorandum abovementioned it was stated that it appeared to the British Embassy that the effect of this bill was to declare unlawful the payment of advance wages abroad to seamen engaged in British and other foreign ships outside the United States. The bill therefore appeared to seek to vary forcibly the provisions of a contract made within British jurisdiction, and in many cases between British subjects, which was perfectly valid under British law, and apparently purported to regulate the manner in which the master of a British ship may engage a British crew in a British port. The effect of the bill therefore appeared to the Embassy to be contrary to the generally accepted principles of international law, and in view of the serious effect which such a measure would have upon the ocean-borne commerce between Great Britain and the United States, the Embassy desired to draw attention to the difficulties which would appear to them to follow from its enactment. The views thus expressed still hold good with reference to Senate bill No. S. 314.
The Embassy’s attention was subsequently drawn to a memorandum by Mr. Frederick P. Lee, legislative counsel to the Senate Committee on Commerce. It had been printed as Senate Document Calendar No. 858—Report No. 833—70th Congress, 1st Session, on April 17th 1928 to accompany bill S. 2945. In this memorandum, a copy of which is annexed hereto,19 the avowed purpose of the bill is clearly stated as being to remedy the handicap from which the United States merchant marine is held to suffer through the higher cost of labour for operating its vessels as compared with the labour costs of operating foreign vessels. The bill therefore seeks to raise to the American level the wage standard for crews of foreign vessels running to and from United States ports by inducing seamen engaged on the European scale of wages to desert ship in United States ports with a view to subsequent re-engagement on the American wage scale. The attention of Mr. Hosmer of the Department of State20 was drawn to this memorandum by Sir Adrian Baillie of this Embassy on May 14th, 1928.
[Page 810]In the same connection Sir Adrian Baillie had already, on May 3rd, provided Mr. Hosmer with a copy of the “motion and brief of Counsel for the British Embassy as amici curiae” in the case of John James Jackson against Archimedes, and had expressed the opinion that this brief—which had been drawn up by Messrs. Coudert of New York— fairly demonstrated that the bill would (a) transcend the legislative jurisdiction of the United States; (b) violate the constitution of the United States; (c) deprive foreign shipowners of property of contract rights; and (d) injure the commerce of a friendly nation.21
- Foreign Relations, 1928, vol. i, p. 832.↩
- Approved March 4, 1915; 38 Stat. 1164.↩
- Introduced by Senator Robert M. LaFollette, Jr., April 22, 1929.↩
- Not reprinted.↩
- Charles B. Hosmer, then in charge of the Shipping Section, Division of Foreign Service Administration.↩
- The British Ambassador on February 24, 1931, “orally” reminded the Department of the British attitude toward the pending bill (196.6/1132).↩