It will now be possible for the Agreement to be drawn in final form,
including a new Article 1 and a new Article 16, which are accepted
by the Netherland Government. I hope the Department at the same time
will give consideration to the fact brought out in the Note that the
Netherland Government, in agreeing to the treaty in its new form, is
doing so against its will and despite the fact that it would have
greatly preferred a treaty which carried out in its provisions the
spirit of the original draft. For this reason it would be agreeable
to me to be able to transmit a further statement to the Ministry of
Foreign Affairs giving such assurances as are possible concerning
the future and I hope the Department will authorize some such
communication.
[Enclosure—Translation]
The Netherland Minister for Foreign
Affairs (De
Graeff) to the
American Minister (Emmet)
No. 15271
The
Hague, May 10, 1935.
Mr. Minister: Referring to my Note No.
11739, of April 6th, last,20 relative to the eventual modification of the
Air Navigation Convention, concluded between the Netherlands and
the United States of America on November 16, 1932, I have the
honor to bring the following to your attention:
According to your Note No. 52, of August 3rd, last,20 Your Excellency’s
Government is not in a position to put the above-mentioned
Convention into force in its present form.
On the other hand, Her Majesty’s Government, for the reasons
stated in my Note No. 34973, of November 20, 1934, could only
with difficulty limit the provisions of the convention already
concluded.
However, the Netherland Government, animated by the desire to
collaborate as much as possible with the Government of the
United States in order to remove the difficulty in question, is
disposed to conclude a new convention containing a modified
Article 1 and a new Article 16, drawn up in accordance with the
text given in Your Excellency’s above-mentioned Note No. 52, of
August 3rd, last.
I take the liberty to add that the Netherland Government
entertains the hope that the American Government will very soon
be in a position
[Page 594]
to
propose an extension of the application of the convention by
virtue of the provisions of the new Article 16.
However, with regard to the last paragraph of page 4 of Your
Excellency’s Note No. 113, of February 12th, last (Note: This
paragraph is the penultimate paragraph on page 2 of the copy of
the Note enclosed with the Legation’s despatch No. 194), the
Government of the Queen is not in a position at present to
express an opinion concerning a subsequent modification of the
application of the convention; it reserves the right in due time
to determine its point of view with regard to the subsequent
proposals of the Government of the United States on this
subject.
Turning to the apparent intention of Your Excellency’s Government
to stipulate that Guam as well as the Aleutian Islands be
regarded as among the prohibited areas, provided for in Article
4 of the Convention, in which flights can be made only subject
to previous authorization, I take the liberty of recalling to
your memory the declaration made by the American Government in
connection with the above-mentioned Article, as follows:
“As a matter of practice it has not been the policy of
the aviation authorities of this Government to
discriminate against foreign aircraft in favor of
American aircraft with respect to flights over
prohibited areas. Very few prohibited areas have been
established by this Government.”
Having this in view, the Government of the Queen is under the
impression that in case the Government of the United States does
not grant permission to Netherland aircraft to fly over Guam and
the Aleutian Islands, a similar measure will be taken with
respect to American aircraft.
I avail myself [etc.]
