195 Code/224
Memorandum by the Assistant to the Legal Adviser (Vallance) of a Conversation With the Second Secretary of the German Embassy (Lohmann)
[Extract]
[Washington,] May 31, 1934.
Mr. Paul Culbertson of the Western European Division advised me over the telephone that Mr. Lohmann was in his office and desired to get information regarding the present status of the Shipping Code. Mr. Culbertson brought Mr. Lohmann to my office, and Mr. Lohmann stated that the Embassy was disturbed about the Shipping Code on three points, as follows:
- 1.
- The proposed Code provided for a Code Authority to be composed of representatives, one-half of whom would be chosen by American shipping interests and the other half by foreign shipping interests. In case of disagreement an appeal could be taken to the National Recovery Administrator, General Johnson. This arrangement would normally result in having the questions generally decided in favor of the American point of view rather than that of the foreign ship owners.
- 2.
- Mr. Lohmann stated that he believed stabilization clause fixing rates on cargoes exported from the United States was in contravention of the terms of the Commercial Treaty between the United States and Germany.56
- 3.
- The restrictions on shipping operations of foreign vessels in American ports proposed by the Code might lead to retaliatory provisions against American vessels and it would be difficult to oppose them with resultant hampering of the improvement of world trade conditions.
. . . . . . . . . . . . . .
W[illiam] R. V[allance]
- Signed at Washington, December 8, 1923, Foreign Relations, 1923, vol. ii, p. 29.↩