611.00244/125
The British Ambassador (Lindsay) to the Secretary of State
Dear Mr. Secretary: With reference to your note of July 9th concerning the Anti-Smuggling Bill (H. R. 7980), I am instructed by Sir Samuel Hoare9 to make a semi-official communication to you in the following terms:–
“His Majesty’s Government in the United Kingdom appreciate the courtesy of the United States Government in furnishing the information contained in the Secretary of State’s letters of June 22nd and July 9th. In connection with the former note His Majesty’s Government were fully aware that care had been taken in the Anti-Smuggling Bill to ensure that no provisions should be construed as authorizing the enforcement of the law on the high seas against foreign vessels in contravention of any international treaty, such as the Liquor Convention between the United States and the United Kingdom. But the Bill appears to confer the faculty to enforce the law upon the high seas in any case where there is no treaty whose provisions [Page 8] would be inconsistent with such enforcement. What His Majesty’s Government are concerned to maintain is the general principle that in cases where there is no treaty or arrangement between the United States and the appropriate foreign Government the ordinary rules of international law must apply, and the United States cannot be held in international law to have the right, by virtue of municipal legislation, to extend beyond the three mile limit, as is done in the present bill, the area within which jurisdiction may be exercised over foreign vessels. In the view of His Majesty’s Government such extension could only be recognized when agreed upon by means of an international treaty. His Majesty’s Government assume it to be clearly understood that they would be obliged to protest against any interference with a British ship outside United States territorial waters except in those cases where interference could be justified by the provisions of the Liquor Convention.”
Very sincerely yours,
- British Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs.↩