811B.85/17

The Secretary of State to the Chargé in the United Kingdom (Johnson)

No. 1154

Sir: In 1938 the Government of the Commonwealth of the Philippines through the National Development Company, a wholly owned instrumentality thereof, extended financial assistance to the De la Rama Steamship Company, a Philippine corporation, for the construction by the Fried Krupp Germaniawerft Aktiengesellschaft, Kiel, Germany, of a motorship, the Don Isidro. On June 16, 1939, for purposes of security in connection with this Government loan, the De la Rama Company was required to assign and transfer all its rights, interests and properties in the contract to the aforementioned National Development Company.

Pursuant to arrangements made with a British shipping firm, the Don Isidro, manned by an English crew under a British captain, together with four Filipino engineers and two German engineers, whose names are Repenning and Zuehl, sailed on August 24, 1939 from Kiel. The vessel was flying the American flag and operating under a provisional [Page 87] certificate of Philippine registry issued by the American Consul General at Hamburg under instructions of the Department, with Manila as the ultimate port of destination. According to the construction contract the two German engineers were to accompany the vessel to Manila and to remain there for a stipulated period in order “to guarantee construction and demonstrate proper manning of ship”. When the Don Isidro put into Port Said preparatory to its passage through the Suez Canal, the two German engineers, without participation by the Egyptian authorities in whose territorial waters the vessel happened to be, were removed from the vessel and taken into custody by the British naval authorities under Vice Admiral Bedford, following a conference or conferences between the Vice Admiral and the British master of the Don Isidro. Thereupon, the vessel passed through the Canal on September 5 bound for Manila where it subsequently arrived safely, while the two German engineers were sent to Great Britain for internment.

On September 28, 1939 the American Legation at Cairo reported11 that the British naval authorities justified their action in arresting the German engineers on the ground that war having been declared, the two German engineers were enemy subjects not too old for military service; that they possessed dangerous technical knowledge; and that the authorities suspected that definite title to the ship had not passed to the Philippine Government.

On the basis of information received from the United States High Commissioner to the Philippine Islands,12 it has been concluded that the Philippine Government has not and will not suffer any monetary damages as a result of the arrest of the two German engineers.

Although the Department in this instance is not interested in determining the relationship between the United Kingdom and Egypt in the present hostilities in Europe or in determining the rights to which the Egyptian Government may be entitled with respect to such an incident occurring within its territorial waters, it is unwilling through silence to acquiesce in an act which, from information available, appears to be in violation of the neutral rights of the United States. The Department desires, therefore, that the Embassy request the British authorities to inform this Government of the legal basis upon which the action of Vice Admiral Bedford was predicated in exercising belligerent rights against a neutral vessel in the harbor of Port Said, the territorial waters of Egypt, en route to Manila via the Suez Canal.

For your information there are enclosed copies of messages received and transmitted by the Department with respect to this matter.13 The [Page 88] confidential information contained in the last paragraph of Cairo’s telegram no. 122, September 28, 10 a.m. should not be conveyed to the British authorities, as such action might be harmful to the British Commandant of the Suez Canal Police who gave that information in strict confidence to the Consul at Port Said.

Very truly yours,

For the Secretary of State:
Sumner Wellles
  1. Telegram No. 122, September 28, 1939, 10 a.m., from the Minister in Egypt, not printed.
  2. Francis B. Sayre.
  3. None printed.