Proclamation 2594—Capture of Prizes

By the President of the United States of America
A Proclamation

Whereas the act of August 18, 1942, 56 Stat. 746, contains in part the following provisions:

"Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That the district courts shall have original jurisdiction of all prizes captured during the present war on the high seas if said capture was made by authority of the United States or was adopted and ratified by the President of the United States and the prize was brought into the territorial waters of a cobelligerent or was taken or appropriated for the use of the United States on the high seas or in such territorial waters, including jurisdiction of all proceedings for the condemnation of such property taken as prize.

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"Sec. 3. The jurisdiction of prizes brought into the territorial waters of a cobelligerent shall not be exercised under authority of this Act, nor shall prizes be taken or appropriated within such territorial waters for the use of the United States, unless the government having jurisdiction over such territorial waters consents to the exercise of such jurisdiction or to such taking or appropriation.

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"Sec. 7. A cobelligerent of the United States which consents to the exercise of the jurisdiction herein conferred with respect to prizes of the United States brought into its territorial waters and to the taking or appropriation of such prizes within its territorial waters for the use of the United States shall be accorded, upon proclamation by the President of the United States, like privileges with respect to prizes captured under authority of such cobelligerent and brought into the territorial waters of the United States or taken or appropriated in the territorial waters of the United States for the use of such cobelligerent. Reciprocal recognition and full faith and credit shall be given to the jurisdiction acquired by courts of a cobelligerent hereunder and to all proceedings had or judgments rendered in exercise of such jurisdiction."

Whereas the Government of Canada, a cobelligerent, has consented to the exercise of the jurisdiction conferred by the said act with respect to prizes of the United States brought into the territorial waters of Canada and to the taking or appropriation of such prizes within the territorial waters of Canada for the use of the United States:

Now, Therefore, I, Franklin D. Roosevelt, President of the United States of America, acting under and by virtue of the authority vested in me by the said act of August 18, 1942, do proclaim that the Government of Canada shall be accorded like privileges with respect to prizes captured under authority of the said Government and brought into the territorial waters of the United States or taken or appropriated in the territorial waters of the United States for the use of the said Government.

In Witness Whereof, I have hereunto set my hand and caused the seal of the United States. of America to be affixed.

Done at the City of Washington this 27th day of September, in the year of our Lord nineteen hundred and forty-three, and of the Independence of the United States of America the one hundred and sixty-eighth.

FRANKLIN D ROOSEVELT

By the President:
ADOLF A. BERLE, JR.,
Acting Secretary of State.