740.00112 Navicert/77
The British Embassy to the Department of State 50
Verbal Statement
In the course of the informal discussions which have recently taken place with the State Department in regard to the introduction and operation of the navicert system in the United States, the British Embassy has been gratified to learn that the explanations given by Lord Lothian in the Oral Statement which he handed to Mr. Grady on January 20th are satisfactory to the Department insofar as concerns the first two of the four assumptions, subject to the acceptance of which the State Department in its Oral Statement of November 9th stated that the United States Government did not desire to take a position in respect of the introduction of the navicert system in the United States.
The State Department has, however, indicated that, as regards the remaining two of these four assumptions, it cannot regard the explanations so far given as satisfactory. In the hope of reconciling the points of view of the United States Government and of His Majesty’s Government in the matter of these two assumptions, Lord Lothian has sought the further instructions of his Government by whom he is now authorized to inform the State Department:
(a) That as the primary object of the Allied contraband control, insofar as concerns exports from the United States, is to prevent supplies necessary for the prosecution of the war from reaching enemy territory and territory under enemy occupation or control, and as the navicert system is designed to enable shippers who avail themselves of it to ascertain in advance of shipment whether their goods when shipped will be permitted to pass through the control to their destination, navicerts will be withheld only in cases in which the Allied Governments have reason to believe that the goods in question are directly or indirectly destined for enemy territory or because of conditions affecting such goods in the neutral countries of destination.
Evidence to this effect and the negative decision flowing from it would be based in the essence on the proposed consignment and on the conditions affecting it in the neutral countries of destination and not on conditions relating to American exporters or to the United States.
(b) That if the Allied Governments should in connection with their contraband control policy decide temporarily not to issue navicerts in respect of any particular commodity or commodities destined for one or more neutral countries, their decision will be made known and the reasons for it explained to interested United States shippers by the [Page 51] quickest and most practicable means available. Insofar as concerns the rejection of individual applications for navicerts, the British Embassy would be prepared to give to each applicant a statement of the reasons for such rejection.
- Handed to Assistant Secretary of State Grady by the British Ambassador. A letter of April 6 from Mr. A. K. Helm, First Secretary of the British Embassy, to Mr. John D. Hickerson of the Division of European Affairs indicates that this statement was prepared on consultation between officers of the British Embassy and the Department of State and was “most reluctantly agreed to” by the British Ministry of Economic Warfare. (740.00112 Navicert/74½)↩