Mr. Storer to Mr. Day.
Brussels, June 8, 1898.
Sir: I have the honor, in reply to your instruction of March 25, 1898, No. 128, to say that in Belgium there is no special proceeding, either civil or criminal, established by law to prevent the use of the Belgian flag for any commercial or industrial purpose, including advertising.
The law of Belgium is in the same situation with regard to the Belgian flag that the minister of justice declared it to be regarding the national flags of foreign nations which might be so used in Belgium, in the official letter, a copy and translation of which were transmitted by me in dispatch No. 75, on January 5, 1898.
[Page 161]The Belgian Government, I am officially informed, could only employ the same method open to any foreign Government in Belgium, which would be to bring an action before the civil tribunals for any injurious use of its national flag (in usage abusif) under the general provision of the civil code, which provides that “anything whatever done by anyone which causes damage to another must be repaired by him through whose fault it has occurred.”
Up to the present time no instance of any such action on the part of either the Belgian or any other Government has occurred.
I have, etc.,