Public Statement Issued by the Exports Administrative Board, October 5, 19171
The Exports Administrative Board, in formulating its policy with regard to granting bunkers to neutral vessels, are actuated solely by the desire to prevent commodities from going to border neutrals for export to Germany. At the present time the Exports Administrative Board will not permit commodities that may benefit the enemy, directly or indirectly, to be exported from this country to the border neutrals because the board has not yet been able to elicit the information which will enable it to determine whether such commodities will so benefit the enemy; and in accordance with this policy the board feels that consistency demands that it should not grant bunker licenses for a vessel which is bound for a border neutral and carries a cargo which may benefit the enemy, notwithstanding such cargo has originated in another country.
In other words, although the board has no means and does not purpose to prevent trade between other neutrals and the border neutrals, it is, nevertheless, in a position to state that if vessels wish to use the coal of the United States they should not be permitted to apply our coal to the prosecution of a voyage which will result in supplying or assisting to supply the enemy with foodstuffs or feed-stuffs or any other commodities.
Numerous cases have been presented to the board where vessels have touched at a United States port en route to a border neutral and carrying cargo which did not originate in the United States, but which is destined for a border neutral and will undoubtedly accrue to the benefit of the enemy. This causes a serious embarrassment, and to avoid such embarrassment the board has adopted a policy calculated to prevent such cases arising in the future. This policy consists in stipulating that a vessel en route to non-European neutrals which touches at a United States port for bunker coal shall not be permitted to have bunker coal for the voyage unless she will agree to return to the United States with a cargo which would be approved by the board or which is destined for a country other than a border neutral.
The board is anxious to assist neutral vessels in continuing their service to South American and other non-European ports; but pending the receipt of the complete information which has been solicited from the border neutrals with respect to their resources and requirements the board feels that it can properly pursue no other policy than the one outlined above.
- The Official Bulletin, Washington, Oct. 5, 1917 (Vol. 1, No. 125), p. 1.↩