The Secretary of State to the German Ambassador (Bernstorff)
Wshington, December 24, 1914.
Excellency: I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of your note of the 15th instant enclosing, by direction of your Government, a copy of a memorandum of the Imperial Government on the subject of the delivery of coal and other necessaries to warships of belligerent states. In the course of the memorandum your Government takes the opportunity to set forth its attitude toward traffic in contraband of war by citizens of neutral countries. I take note therefore, of your Government’s statement that “under the general principles of international law no exception can be taken to neutral states letting war material go to Germany’s enemies from or through neutral territory,” and that the adversaries of Germany in the present war are, in [Page 648] the opinion of the Imperial Government, authorized to “draw from the United States contraband of war, especially arms, worth several billions of marks.” These principles, as you state, have been accepted by the United States Government in the statement issued by the Department on October 15 last, entitled “Neutrality and trade in contraband.”1 Acting in conformity with propositions there set forth this Government has itself taken no part in contraband traffic and so far as possible has lent its influence toward equal treatment for all belligerents in the matter of purchasing arms and ammunition in the United States. Complaint, however, appears to be made by the Imperial German Government of the refusal of clearance by American authorities to merchant vessels intending to furnish fuel and supplies to German warships on the high seas or in neutral ports.
In reply I desire to call to your attention that the Government is not aware that any merchant vessel has been refused a clearance on these grounds during the present war, although certain temporary detentions have been found to be necessary for the purpose of investigating the bona fides of the alleged destinations of particular vessels and the intentions of their owners or masters. This has been done in an effort to carry out the principles of international law and the declarations of treaties with respect to coal supplies for belligerent warships and the use of neutral ports as bases of naval operations. Although as a rule there is on the part of the nationals of neutral countries entire freedom of trade in arms, ammunition, and other articles of contraband, nevertheless the Imperial German Government will recall that international law and the treaties declaratory of its principles make a clear distinction between ordinary commerce in contraband of war and the occasional furnishing of warships at sea or in neutral ports. In this relation I venture to advert to Articles 18 to 20, inclusive, of Hague Convention XIII, 1907. From these articles it will be observed that a warship which has received fuel in a port belonging to a neutral power may not within the succeeding three months replenish her supply in a port of the same power. It is, I am sure, only necessary to call your attention to these articles to make it perfectly clear that if a number of merchant vessels may at short intervals leave neutral ports with cargoes of coal for transshipment to belligerent warships at sea, regardless of when the warships last received fuel in the ports of the same neutral power, the conventional prohibition would be nullified, and the three months’ rule rendered useless. By such practice a warship might remain on its station engaged in belligerent operations without the inconvenience of repairing to port for fuel supplies.
Furthermore, Article 5 of the same convention forbids belligerents to use neutral ports and waters as a base of naval operations against their adversaries. As stated in the Department’s statement on “Merchant vessels suspected of carrying supplies to belligerent vessels,” dated September 19 last (a copy of which is enclosed),2 the essential idea of neutral territory becoming the base for naval operations by a belligerent is, in the opinion of this Government, repeated departure from such territory of merchant vessels laden with fuel [Page 649] or other supplies for belligerent warships at sea. In order to ascertain the vessels which are thus operating, the Government has been obliged to investigate certain cases in order that it might determine whether there have been or are about to be repetitions of such acts. But in all respects equality of treatment has been observed toward all merchant vessels suspected of carrying supplies to belligerent vessels.
It is hardly necessary to recount in this note the provisions of the Hague conventions in regard to the fitting out or arming of vessels within the jurisdiction of a neutral power, or the stipulations in the same conventions regarding the departure of vessels intended to cruise or engage in hostile operations which have been adapted entirely, or in part, for such use within neutral jurisdiction. To the extent of these restrictions the furnishing of munitions of war included in absolute contraband is prohibited in neutral waters, and therefore should not be permitted indirectly by means of naval tenders, or merchant vessels acting as tenders, carrying such materials from a neutral jurisdiction to belligerent warships at sea.
It is not necessary in further reply to the memorandum of the Imperial German Government to advert in detail to other provisions of the Hague conventions or to other rules of international law, for no particular cases have been adduced as a ground for your Government’s complaint. If, however, they will specify the vessels which they must have in mind as having been accorded unequal treatment, the Department will be glad to give further consideration to the memorandum of your Government in the light of actual facts. It is, then, sufficient to say for the present that in the pursuance of the policy to carry out the principles above referred to, which is part of the program of this Government to preserve and maintain the neutrality of the United States, all merchant vessels suspected of carrying supplies to belligerent warships at sea have been subjected, and will continue to be subjected, to unremitting and painstaking investigation. Such action can not, it is believed, be fairly taken to amount to “unequal treatment of the belligerents and constitute a breach of the generally accepted rules of neutrality to Germany’s detriment.”
Accept [etc.]