651.0031/13
The French Chargé ( Chambrun ) to the Acting Secretary of State
Mr. Secretary of State: In view of the new conditions which must necessarily grow out of the war with respect to international economic relations and in order to secure full freedom of action in negotiating future agreements, the Government of the Republic has decided to denounce the Commerce and Navigation treaties by which France is bound with the Allied and Associated Powers as well as with the neutral countries.
I need not say to Your Excellency that this measure of a general character is in no wise prompted by a spirit of mistrust or exclusivism. France is not in the least seeking isolation or self-centering. She wishes, on the contrary, to be free to shape the mode of her foreign relations so as to suit them to the development she wishes them to take, while harmonizing them with the experience gained in the war and the new conditions created by it.
The existing regime must in any event stand until a new regime can be substituted, so there is no fear of any interruption in the intimate relations that bind France to the United States.
That is the spirit which pervades the instructions I have received from the Government of the Republic to give to the Federal Government notice of the termination of the Convention of Navigation and Commerce, concluded between France and the United States on June 24, 1822.
Under my Government’s instruction the notice is to bear date of this tenth day of March 1919, so as to become operative, six months’ notice being the time stipulated by the Convention, on September [Page 229] 10, 1919, on which day all the Commerce and Navigation treaties signed by France will mature.
On and after that date, the denounced Convention may be extended for periods of three months by tacit renewal until the new instrument which is to supersede it shall have been perfected and put into effect. I deem it proper to add that an extension of this character has been accepted by all the Powers to which the Government of the Republic has had to give similar notice of termination.
I should be thankful to Your Excellency if you would kindly acknowledge receipt of this communication.
Be pleased [etc.]