862.33/234: Telegram
The Acting Secretary of State to the Ambassador in France (Leahy)
142. Your 303, February 26, noon. In discussing with the French Government the entry of the German submarine into Fort-de-France harbor it may be pointed out that this Government received from the French Embassy in Washington on August 21, 1916 a communication from the Allied Governments announcing their decision that:
“Submarine vessels should be excluded from the benefit of the rules hitherto recognized by the Law of Nations regarding the admission of vessels of war or merchant vessels into neutral waters, roadsteads or ports and their sojourn in them. Any belligerent submarine entering a neutral port shall be detained there.” (See Foreign Relations 1916 Supplement, page 769–770.)
As you are aware by proclamation of the President dated November 4, 193971 belligerent submarines were prohibited from entering ports or territorial waters of the United States.
It may be added that the position taken by the French Government when a belligerent as regards neutral rights seems at variance with its present position that provisions of the Hague Convention are applicable.
- Department of State Bulletin, November 4, 1939, p. 456.↩