Foreign Relations of the United States, 1947, The Near East and Africa, Volume V

800.3383/9–647

The Secretary of State to the Embassy in Egypt

confidential
No. 1966

Washington, November 8, 1947.

Sir: Reference is made to the Embassy’s despatch No. 2887 dated September 6, 1947¹ and previous communications regarding the desire of the Egyptian Government to receive advance notice of transit of foreign war vessels through Egyptian territorial waters and through the Suez Canal. This matter has received very careful consideration by the Department, and the following statement of the Department’s views on this subject is set forth for your information:

• “1. Article 1 of the Convention respecting the free navigation of the Suez Maritime Canal, signed at Constantinople on October 29, 1888, provides that ‘The Suez Maritime Canal shall always be free and open, in time of war as in time of peace, to every vessel of commerce or of war without distinction of flag.’ It is further provided that ‘Consequently, the high contracting parties agree not in any way to interfere with the free use of the canal, in time of war as in time of peace.’ From these provisions it seems clear that the contracting parties contemplate the Canal shall ‘always be free and open’ and that they would not ‘in any way interfere with the free use of the canal’.
• 2. It is further provided in Article 4 that ‘The transit of the aforesaid vessels through the canal shall be effected with the least possible delay, in accordance with the regulations in force, and without any other intermission than that resulting from the necessities of the service.’ To require the advance notice proposed by the Egyptian Government would be contrary to the requirement that vessels shall be allowed to proceed through the canal ‘with the least possible delay’.”

Accordingly, the Embassy is requested to advise the Egyptian Foreign Office that this Government is of the opinion that advance notice of the transit of American war vessels through the Suez Canal cannot properly be required by the Egyptian Government. You will also state that this Government will not raise objection to the requirement of three weeks’ notice to be given in connection with visits of American war vessels to Egyptian ports.

Please forward to the Department for its records a copy of the communication you send to the Foreign Office with regard to this matter.²

Very truly yours,

For the Secretary of State:

Ernest A. Gross

³

1. Not printed.
2. The Embassy in Egypt sent an appropriate note, No. 2791, to the Egyptian Ministry of Foreign Affairs on November 20, and transmitted copies to the British and French Embassies. Another copy was transmitted to the Department in despatch 3048, November 22, from Cairo (800.3383/11–2247). The British Embassy sent two notes on this matter to the Egyptian Ministry of Foreign Affairs on November 11 and December 8, and the French Embassy sent one note on November 28. Copies of the three notes were transmitted to the Department by the Embassy in Cairo in despatches 3048, November 22, 3089, December 15, and 3068, December 5 (800.3383/11–2247, /12–1547, /12–547).
3. The Legal Adviser.