311.5654 Wilhelmina/12
Memorandum of Conversation, by the Assistant Secretary of State (Long)
The Minister of the Netherlands came in today at his own request, and presented to me the attached note no. 28444 on the subject of the Wilhelmina. The Minister reminded me that on the occasion of my first conversation with him about the vessel, at which time I told him that unless the Netherlands Government arranged its affairs so that it could put the vessel to work in the immediate future that the United States Government would feel justified in expropriating the vessel to be put to work in the United Nations cause, he had stated that if the American Government did so it would be necessary for him to protest in the name of his Government. The Minister continued to say that he was now formally protesting as a matter of principle.
The Minister orally took exception to a statement I recently made to a representative of his Legation who called upon me on the same matter. The Minister said that he wanted to point to my remarks that the American Government had taken over vessels belonging to Denmark and to Rumania. I told the Minister there was no unpleasant analogy. The gentleman in question had said that the American Government had not the right to take over a vessel belonging to another government. I had told him that we would exercise that right and considered ourselves justified in exercising it, and in explanation had told him that two vessels, one belonging to Denmark and one to Rumania, had been expropriated. This action was taken while the United States was neutral. The use of the names of the two governments concerned had no unpleasant reference as far as the Netherlands Government was concerned, and the action of the American Government in this case should not be related to the governments named in the other expropriations, and that I simply named the governments to sustain the statement that as a matter of principle and in law the United States Government had the right.
The Netherlands Minister said he understood, but nevertheless he felt it would be necessary to leave the attached note and make the oral statement that they would be glad to make the vessel available provided [Page 45] it was returned to the Dutch flag and that the American Government would use it on a charter party, but he denied the right of the United States Government to take title to the ship.
- Infra. ↩