File No. 600.119/1429a
The Secretary of State to the Ambassador in Great Britain ( Page)
1648. For Sheldon [from War Trade Board]:1
No. 1282. For your confidential information. Following is text of cablegram despatched by the Navy Department to Admiral Sims:
Replying to your 4881, the Department’s policy has in general been opposed to permitting unarmed steamers or sailing ships to proceed independently into European and North Atlantic waters. Whenever the danger is not considered great for any specific voyage and the cargo carried is such that it could not materially aid submarine operations or be transported by submarines if captured, it has been deemed advisable to make certain exceptions to this general policy. Thus, the War Trade Board, in the matter of the issuance of bunker licenses, has adopted rules in substance as follows:
- 1.
- No unarmed steamer will be permitted to proceed independently from any port of the United States or its possessions when her deck cargo consists wholly or in part of petroleum or its by-products, foodstuffs, brass and copper or other similar metals as such, when their voyages will necessitate navigating waters north of the latitude of Charleston, South Carolina.
- 2.
- No sailing vessel will be permitted to proceed from any port of the United States or its possessions, bound on any voyage to any port on the west coast of Africa north of Cape Palmas inclusive, to any European port, to any Mediterranean port, or to any port of an island in the Atlantic Ocean east of 30 degrees west longitude and north of 4 degrees north latitude. The foregoing, irrespective of the nature of the cargo.
- 3.
- No sailing vessel will be permitted to sail from any Atlantic or Gulf port of the United States, or its possessions, including sailings from any Pacific port through the Panama Canal, bound on any voyage whatsoever, when such vessel carries any quantity of petroleum or its by-products or foodstuffs as cargo unless such petroleum and its by-products and foodstuffs are so stowed in the hold of the vessel beneath cargo of a different nature, as to make it manifestly difficult for any submarine to remove such petroleum or its by-products or such foodstuffs.
- 4.
- No sailing vessel will be permitted to sail from any Atlantic or Gulf port of the United States, or its possessions, including sailings from any Pacific port through the Panama Canal, on any voyage whatsoever, with any quantity of brass, copper or other similar metals as such.
As the result of special negotiations, the War Trade Board has adopted the following exceptions to the general rules stated above.
- (a)
- Spanish sailing vessels will be permitted to traverse the danger zone en route to Spain, provided such vessels are fully loaded with no objectionable cargo as defined in 3 and 4 above.
- (b)
- Portuguese sailing vessels will be permitted to traverse the danger zone en route to Portugal provided such vessels are fully loaded with no objectionable cargo as defined in 3 and 4 above.
- (c)
- Sailing vessels carrying “safe-conducts” from the German Government will be permitted to sail from United States ports to Cette with cargoes destined to Switzerland, provided the cargoes of such vessels are unobjectionable as defined in 3 and 4 above.
In all cases where the vessels are permitted to proceed as outlined in the foregoing, a condition precedent to the granting of the bunker license is that no suspicion whatever is entertained against the masters or the crew of the vessels.
It is requested that an expression similar to the above be obtained from the Inter-Allied Maritime Transport Council and communicated to the Department by cable.
The cable was submitted to us before it was despatched and represents our attitude towards the question of sailing vessels. Repeat to McFadden and show to Stevens as confidential information.
- See last paragraph for instruction to report to McFadden, W.T.B. representative at Paris.↩