Papers Relating to the Foreign Relations of the United States, 1918, Supplement 1, The World War, Volume II

Letter of Adherence by the War Trade Board to the Joint Agreement between the Governments of Great Britain, France, and Italy and the Netherlands Oversea Trust¹

[ London,] December 30, 1918.

The War Trade Board of the United States, an administrative agency acting pursuant to authority conferred upon it by the President of the United States, pursuant to acts of Congress, whose obligations assumed herein are limited to the granting of export licenses and the facilitating of exports from the United States, hereinafter referred to as the Board, adheres to the agreement signed the 17th day of December, 1918, by the British, French, and Italian Governments on the one hand, and the N[etherlands] O[versea] T[rust], hereinafter referred to as the Trust, on the other hand, subject to the following reservations and exceptions:

1. The Board, in so far as it becomes a party to the above agreement, by its adherence thereto, enters into the agreement severally and not jointly, the obligations which it assumes are several and not joint and the rights which accrue to it are, in like manner, several.

2. The examination of vessels referred to in article 1, paragraph 1, of the above agreement shall be construed, so far as the Board is concerned, to relate only to the examination of vessels in ports of the United States.

3. In lieu of article 1, paragraph 2, of the agreement, the Trust agrees with the Board as follows:

Goods arriving in the Netherlands consigned to the Trust will not be withheld from delivery except where something unforeseen occurs between the time of the approval of the goods by one of the Allied Governments or the Board and their arrival in the Netherlands. In such case, the Allied Governments and the Board reserve the right to ask for the goods to be stored until the ratification of the treaty of peace, but the Allied Governments and the Board promise to restrict as far as possible the exercise of this right.

4. In lieu of article 2 of the agreement, the Trust agrees with the Board that every consignment of goods which it is proposed to ship to the Netherlands addressed to the Trust from any place of origin whatsoever excluding Norway, Denmark and Sweden, shall previously be submitted for the approval of the Associated Governments and the Board, except consignments shipped from countries where a system of control approved by the Associated Governments and the Board is or may be in operation and approved in accordance with such system of control.

5. Article 3 of the above agreement shall be construed as obligating the Trust with respect to the Board only to the extent of recognizing the enemy trading list and the confidential lists of the Board, copies of which shall from time to time be furnished to the Trust by the Board.

6. The Board’s adherence to the above-mentioned agreement does not include an adherence to article 17 of such agreement which article shall be considered as eliminated from the agreement so far as the Board is concerned.

7. The Board reserves the right to withdraw from its adherence to the above agreement at any time upon 30 days notice to the Trust or after the final ratification of a treaty of peace by the Government of the United States without previous notice.

U. S. War Trade Board

L. P. Sheldon

1. Transmitted to the Trust by the War Trade Board representative at The Hague under date of Jan. 13, 1919: notification of the Trust’s assent was reported by him, Jan. 18 (File No. 656.119/974).