711.569/3

The Secretary of State to the Minister in the Netherlands (Tobin)

Sir: Ref erring to the Department’s circular telegram dated June 12, 1923, 3 P.M., forwarded from the American Embassy at Paris, and to subsequent communications concerning the proposal for a treaty to be concluded between the United States and the Netherlands with respect to the enforcement of prohibition on Dutch vessels within American territorial waters and measures for stopping liquor smuggling, the Department encloses for your information a copy of an instruction, dated August 25, 1923, addressed to the American Embassy at London dealing with the matter.37a Copies of the notes exchanged with the British Embassy concerning the Henry L. Marshall case referred to on page seven of the enclosed instruction are forwarded herewith for your information.37b

You will observe that the extract from the Columbia Law Review quoted in the enclosed instruction contains the following statement regarding Dutch laws that deal with the extent of territorial jurisdiction claimed by the Netherlands:

The Netherlands in 1914 proclaimed a neutrality zone of three miles.

The foot-note cites the following authorities in support of this statement:

“See 108 B. & F. State Papers, op. cit. (1914) 827; Fulton, op. cit., p. 658. In 1895 an official invitation was issued from The Hague suggesting a conference to establish the six-mile limit. See Crocker, op. cit., p. 150, 606; 25 Annuaire de L’Institut de Droit International (1912) 376.” (Fulton, The Sovereignty of the Sea (1911).)

[Here follows, mutatis mutandis, the same text as in instructions to the Chargé in France, September 10, 1923, beginning with “You will submit,” printed on pages 180181.]

I am ]etc.[

Charles E. Hughes
  1. Ante, p. 172.
  2. Ante, pp. 163 and 165.