859.85/609
Memorandum of Conversation, by the Assistant Secretary of State (Long)
The Danish Minister came in at his own request. He took up the question of the Danish boats being taken over.35 He reminded me of a recent conversation he had with me during the course of which he remarked that he thought the best way out would be the expropriation of the ships by the American Government.
Today he said that he was not unhappy that it had happened; that he was only primarily concerned about the welfare of the seamen and the captains; that these men were not saboteurs; that they were devoted to their ships; that they had been on runs to England on these same Danish ships before Denmark was invaded; that several thousands of them were serving on ships now running to England; and that he hoped that these facts would be taken into consideration by the authorities in control of the men.
I told him that I did not know the details of arrangements, but I was sure the American Government felt and would manifest a sympathetic understanding of the difference in the situation between the Danes on the one hand and the Germans and the Italians on the other. Not only have the Danes not committed sabotage, but we felt that they were entitled to a preferential treatment.
- During the night of March 29–30, 1941, the Coast Guard took control of 35 of the 41 Danish vessels in American ports, not interfering with those which had been actively trading or with one Danish Government-owned ship. There was no evidence of sabotage on the Danish vessels, and in their case the seizure was purely “preventive” and taken in anticipation of possible damage by other persons as well as by the crews. See Hackworth, Digest of International Law, vol. vii, p. 519. For correspondence regarding the taking over of German and Italian ships the same night, see Foreign_Relations, 1941, vol. i, pp. 451 ff.↩