865.85/628
The Secretary of State to the Italian Ambassador (Colonna)
The Secretary of State presents his compliments to His Excellency the Royal Italian Ambassador and has the honor to refer to the Ambassador’s note no. 6046 of August 4, 194126 requesting that an appraisal of the damages suffered by the twenty-eight Italian merchant vessels in United States ports be made by naval experts of the Government of the United States and representatives of the owners of the vessels in order to ascertain the nature and extent of the damages.
The opinion of the various interested departments of the Government has been solicited and in reply the Ambassador’s attention is directed to the following facts and circumstances.
The preliminary surveys of the vessels referred to, in practically all cases, indicated that they had been subjected to such acts of sabotage as to bring them within the provisions of Title 50, Section 193, of the United States Code Annotated and, therefore, to make them liable to forfeiture to the United States. Judicial proceedings to effect such forfeitures are, with reference to many of the vessels, now pending in the Federal courts. In the event of forfeiture, title to the vessels will pass to the Government of the United States under the provisions of law referred to and, consequently, the question as to the nature and extent of the sabotage damages will be of immediate concern only to that Government.
Extensive repairs have been made or are being made on practically all vessels involved and, as a consequence, it would appear that no accurate estimate of the extent of the damages originally inflicted on the vessels could result from examination at this time by the owners. The results of the original surveys and the repair bills will remain accessible for use in the future should the courts, in any cases, fail to decree the forfeiture of particular vessels.
In consideration of the above, it is not deemed practicable to accede to the request made in the Ambassador’s note under reference.
- Not printed.↩