311.5654 Wilhelmina/14
The Secretary of State to the Netherlands Ambassador (Loudon)
The Secretary of State presents his compliments to His Excellency the Ambassador of the Netherlands and has the honor to refer to his note of May 4, 1942 in which, on behalf of the Netherlands Government, he makes representations with respect to the actions of the Government of the United States in requisitioning title to and possession of the S. S. Wilhelmina.
On April 18, 1942, the War Shipping Administration, by an order issued pursuant to the Act of June 6, 1941, (55 Stat. 242) requisitioned title to and possession of the S. S. Wilhelmina.
It appears from His Excellency’s note that the Java–China Trading Company, Limited, was the owner of the vessel.
The records of this Government disclose that the Wilhelmina, a merchant vessel, arrived at Dutch Harbor, Alaska on or about December 25, 1941 without cargo consigned to that port and with no intention to transport cargo from that port, and subsequently left that port for Seattle, Washington where it arrived on or about February 20, 1942.
The vessel had been, for a number of years, lying in the Yangtze River at Hankow and had been under Chinese registry and, it appears, Chinese ownership. The appropriate authorities of this Government state that, at the time of its arrival in American jurisdiction, the legal status and nationality of the vessel were not clear and that, while it was flying the flag of the Netherlands, it does not appear to have had appropriate evidence to show a valid transfer from the Chinese flag. The records also suggest the possibility that the Netherlands Indies registration of the vessel had not been effected.
This Government is unable to share the view expressed in the Ambassador’s note that the Wilhelmina had become a “Netherlands Government vessel” which was simply taken away from that Government. The note itself elsewhere states that merely the “use” of the vessel was requisitioned by the Commander of the Netherlands Indies Naval Forces, stated to be the competent authority, by telegram on January 14, 1942. It also refers to the vessel’s having been libeled and states that in the meanwhile the communications with the Netherlands Indies had ceased and the Netherlands Government in London had issued a decree by which it took over all the requisitionings made by the Netherlands Indies Government, and that “the Wilhelmina had thus become a vessel, the use of which had been requisitioned by the Netherlands Government in London.” Copies of pertinent laws and decrees have not been submitted.
This Government seriously doubts that the status of the vessel was such as to permit its use being requisitioned, while under American [Page 49] jurisdiction, by the Netherlands Government. It furthermore doubts that the Commander of the Netherlands Indies Naval Forces could, by telegram, effectually requisition the use of a vessel in a port of the United States. However, assuming that the use of the vessel had been requisitioned by the Netherlands Government, this fact would not preclude the United States from requisitioning title to and possession of the vessel, in the exercise of a well-established right of a sovereign to take, in the case of necessity, property of any kind, situated within its jurisdiction.
It may be furthermore observed that, at the time the Wilhelmina was requisitioned by the appropriate authorities of this Government, it was not in the possession of the Netherlands Government but had been libeled and was in the possession of the District Court of the United States, for the Western District of Washington.
In view of the circumstances in this case, and since title to the vessel has now been taken by the United States, this Government is not in the position to comply with the request contained in His Excellency’s note that the Wilhelmina be now restored to the Netherlands flag.