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OPY
¦P'616/6/61)
M.07540/38
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31st Maroh, 1939.
Sir,
In reply to Foreign Office letter No.A 7968/14/51
of the 6th December last, concerning the quantity of fuel
to he supplied to belligerent warships from neutral
sources, I am commanded by My Lords Commissioners of the
Admiralty to acquaint you, for the information of the
Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, that they agree
that neither of the alternative rules laid down in Article
19 of Hague Convention XIII is entirely satisfactory. They
accordingly welcome the suggestion in paragraph 4 of your
letter that H.M. Government should rely on their
reservation to this Article for the purpose of contending
that the provision allowing a sufficient supply of fuel to
reach the nearest home port must he interpreted on the
assumption that it was not intended to allow belligerent
warships to take on more fuel than would be necessary to
enable them to steam a moderate distance.     In support of
this contention, it should be possible to argue that, owing
to the increase which has taken place in the endurance of
warships, they are now able to conduct operations at
distances from their home ports far greater than those
contemplated by the delegates to the Conference of 1907.
2.     In the light of the experience of enemy commerce
raiding operations in the last war, it appears to Their
Lordships necessary to take into account, also, the
probability that belligerent warships will not enter neutral
ports/
The Under-Secretary of State,
Foreign Office.
I
porta themselves for fuelling and storing purposes, tout
will rely upon the services of supply ships which load
the necessary cargoes in neutral ports.     It is desirable,
therefore, to form some view as to the extent to whioh the
treatment of such vessels should he assimilated to that of
warships for the purposes at present under discussion.
3. After careful review of this question and hearing
in mind the possible needs of the British Fleet In certain
contingencies, Their Lordships consider that H.M. Government
would hest adhere to the attitude outlined in the
memorandum forwarded with Admiralty semi-official letter
M.0482/34 of the 10th August, 1934, addressed to Mr.
Nlcholls, which suggested that oilers and tankers directly
attached to the Fleet and intended for communication with
the Base, should, from the start, he treated as vessels
of war for fuelling purposes.     It further suggested that
oilers and tankers not attached to the Fleet might
legitimately he diverted to oil warships at sea, provided
that repeated use was not made of any particular merchant
ship and that the Fleet was not operating in the
neighbourhood.
4. If this test is applied, it will he possible to
urge upon neutrals the restriction, in accordance with the
view of Article 19 of Hague Convention XIII discussed
above, of cargoes supplied to any particular oiler as soon
as the enemy is unwise enough to use her more than once for
the purpose of shipping fuel from a neutral port. Even
if the enemy is careful to use a number of oilers in turn,
it will still be possible to make representations to the
neutral government concerned, as soon as the direct
shipment of supplies to enemy warships is repeated a
sufficient/
to
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sufficient number of times from a port or ports in the
same neutral oountry to justify the suspicion that the
ports of that country, either individually or collectively,
are being used as a base for belligerent operations. The
distance at which the warships are operating from the port
or ports would clearly be a relevant factor in deciding at
what stage this latter argument could be employed*
5. Finally, I am to refer also to Foreign Office
letter A. 241/241/45 of the 15th January, concerning the
rule adopted by the Panama Canal Authorities to govern the
fuelling of belligerent warships*     In view of the various
Issues discussed above, My Lords suggest that enquiries
should be made, firstly, as to whether the same rule would
be applied generally throughout the territory of the
United States of America in wartime;    and secondly, what
vessels, in what circumstances, would be regarded by the
United States Authorities as assimilated to warships for
the purposes of applying this rule. X
6. My Lords also suggest that if the rule adopted
by the Panama Canal Authorities found acceptance in a few
other neutral countries, this would afford grounds for
quoting it as an example of one way in which Article 19
of Hague Convention XIII in the interpretation placed
upon it by H.M. Government, could be put into effect.
I am, etc*,
(SgcU.) S..H. PHILLIPS.
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