File No. 763.72112/2964
The Chargé in Great Britain (Laughlin) to the Secretary of State
[Received 11.20 p. m.]
4897. Referring to your 3710,2 August 19, 11 a. m. Foreign Office replies in sense of the following:
The notice to which attention was called was issued to British ship-broking firms in their own interests as well as in those of neutral shipowners who have accepted the conditions in question, its object being to call their attention to the necessity of taking steps to prevent the position of the owners from being prejudiced by a particular clause commonly inserted in certain standard forms of charter party.
British Government anxious in the first place to make it clear that there is no question of any prohibition involved nor in the nature of things can any such prohibition exist.
What is aimed at is in all cases the arrival at a mutually satisfactory understanding regarding prompt and regular supply of bunker coal to the vessels belonging to such neutrals as are willing [Page 445] to accept these conditions, in all parts of the world where that supply is to any extent under control.
The very first of the conditions in question is that the agreement shall cover not merely individual vessels belonging to the firm or person accepting them, but all the vessels which [are under] their or his ownership or control at the time of acceptance, or which may come under the same subsequently. The vessels covered by the agreement constitute a fixed unit, to which both the privileges accorded and conditions imposed in compensation are applicable, and it will be readily understood that the larger the number of vessels involved, the greater is the value of the arrangement concluded. Therefore it seems only reasonable that the shipowner who has obtained the assurance of certain facilities for his vessels which, in point of fact, considerably augment their value, in consideration of his undertaking to observe certain conditions in respect to all of them, should not be able to subtract any portion of consideration given without previous notice and consent.
A further reason for necessity of insisting on this particular condition of the grant of bunkering facilities to neutral vessels is to be found in the comprehensive and somewhat complicated arrangements which it has been necessary to set on foot all over the world with a view to insuring the regular provision of the required facilities, involving, as this does, an elaborate system of notification of all removals from, and additions to, the number of vessels entitled to them. If a neutral owner who has obtained the inclusion of his ships in that number, in return for certain undertakings, were free at any time to transfer one or more of his ships without previous knowledge and consent of British Government, it would be unable to obviate the danger of those vessels continuing to enjoy the advantages resulting from those undertakings after they had passed into the hands of others who had refused to accept or who possibly had accepted and subsequently violated the conditions of supply.
The requirements of British Government in this respect are carefully set forth in an explanatory letter which is addressed to neutral shipowners immediately on their notification to British Government of their willingness to accept the said conditions and in which they are clearly warned of the necessity of consulting the British Government before either selling or time-chartering any of the vessels which might have been under their control at the time of their acceptance.