one hundred and fifty thousand tons of Dutch shipping should at the discretion of the United States be employed partly in the service of Belgian relief and partly for Switzerland on safe conduct to Cette, France, and that for each ship sent to Holland in the service of Belgian relief a corresponding vessel should leave Holland for the United States. Two Dutch ships in the United States ports with cargoes of foodstuffs were to proceed to Holland, similar tonnage being sent in exchange from Holland to the United States for charter as in the case of other Dutch ships lying in the United States ports.
The President stated that shortly afterward Holland rejected her own proposals, presumably through fear of German submarines, every suggestion thereafter was postponed, and answers were delayed, until finally, on March 7, it became clear that Holland was prevented by German coercion from fulfilling any agreement to put her ships into service; it was then concluded to exercise the sovereign rights of a belligerent under the international law of "angary," and to place the Dutch ships under American jurisdiction. The President concluded as follows:
We have informed the Dutch Government that her colonial trade will be facilitated and that she may at once send ships from Holland to secure the bread cereals which her people require. These ships will be freely bunkered and will be immune from detention on our part. The liner Nieuw Amsterdam, which came within our jurisdiction under an agreement for her return, will, of course, be permitted at once to return to Holland. Not only so, but she will be authorized to carry back with her the two cargoes of foodstuffs which Holland would have secured under the temporary chartering agreement had not Germany prevented. Ample compensation will be paid to the Dutch owners of the ships which will be put into our service and suitable provision will be made to meet the possibility of ships being lost through enemy action.
It is our earnest desire to safeguard to the fullest extent the interests of Holland and of her nationals. By exercising in this crisis our admitted right to control all property within our territory we do no wrong to Holland. The manner in which we proposed to exercise this right and our proposals made to Holland concurrently therewith, cannot, I believe, fail to evidence to Holland the sincerity of our friendship toward her.
The seizure of the Dutch ships was accomplished without friction on March 20 by manning them with American naval officers, with the co-operation of the United States Shipping Board. The Dutch crews were released, and many of the officers and sailors returned to Holland a few days later.
The action of the American and British authorities produced much agitation in Holland; the Dutch newspapers bitterly denounced the action as unwarranted. A statement appeared in the Official Gazette of the Netherlands Government on March 30 in which the seizure was characterized as an act of violence. The statement asserted that the act was "indefensible from the viewpoint of international law and unjustifiable." Denial was made that an agreement failed through German pressure. The Dutch official statement ended as follows:
The powers in question, owing to the loss of ships, felt constrained to replace the tonnage by obtaining the disposal of a very large number of ships which belonged not to them but to the Netherlands. They became aware that the Netherlands Government could not permit the ships to sail in the interest of the associated Governments except on the conditions imposed by neutrality, but which were, in the judgment of the Governments, not sufficiently in accordance with their interests. Therefore, they decided to seize the Dutch merchant fleet in so far as it lay within their power.
The Netherlands Government deems it its duty, especially in serious times such as the present, to speak with complete candor. It voices the sentiments of the entire Dutch Nation, which sees in the seizure an act of violence which it will oppose with all the energy of its conviction and its wounded national feeling.
According to the Presidential statement, this procedure offers Holland ample opportunity to obtain bread grain. This is so only apparently; for would it not be an irresponsible act, after the experiences of Dutch ships in American and British ports, to permit other ships to sail to these ports without adequate guarantees that these experiences shall not occur?
The American Government has always appealed to right and justice, has always come forward as the champion of small nations. That it now co-operates in an act diametrically opposed to those principles is a proceeding which can find no counterweight in the manifestations of friendship or assurances of lenient application of the wrong committed.