651.0031/13
The Acting Secretary of State to the French Chargé ( Chambrun )
Sir: I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of your note of March 9, 1919, in which you refer to the decision of the Government of the French Republic to denounce the Commerce and Navigation treaties which exist between France and the Allied and Associated Powers as well as between France and the neutral countries, and state that this measure of a general character is in nowise prompted by a spirit of mistrust or exclusivism and not because France is seeking isolation, but, on the contrary, because she desires to be free to shape the mode of her foreign relations so as to suit them to the development that she wishes them to take, while harmonizing them with the experience gained in the war and with the new conditions created by it. You also state that this spirit pervades the instructions that you have received from your Government to give to the Government of the United States notice of the termination of the Convention of Navigation and Commerce concluded between France and the United States on June 24,1822, and that under your Government’s instructions “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 10, 1919.”
In acknowledging the French Government’s notice of denunciation as of March 10, 1919 of the treaty of June 24, 1822, I have the honor to inform you that the Government of the United States is not in a position to agree to the proposal of that Government contained in your note that on and after September 10, 1919, the life of the Convention be extended for periods of three months by tacit renewal until the new instrument, which is to supersede it, shall have been put into effect.
[Page 230]The postponement of the termination of the treaty in the manner suggested would, in effect, amount to continuing the treaty indefinitely, subject to termination upon three months’ notice by either party, whereas by Article VII it is provided that the treaty may be terminated after its original term by the declaration of one of the parties of its intention to renounce it, made at least six months before hand. The suggestion of the French Government amounts, therefore, in my opinion, to a proposal to modify the terms of a provision of the treaty, a proposal which is not susceptible of execution on the part of the Government of the United States in the manner suggested, since there is no provision in the laws of the United States for making it so operative.
In the circumstances, therefore, the Government of the United States has no other course to pursue than to regard the French note of March 9, 1919, as notice given in accordance with Article VII of the treaty of June 24, 1822, for the definite termination of that treaty on September 10 next, without temporary renewals from time to time by the High Contracting Parties. The United States, however, will be pleased to entertain any further proposal which the French Government may wish to present regarding the continuance of the treaty mentioned until the conclusion of a new convention on commerce and navigation.
Accept [etc.]