Putting teeth into the Atlantic Charter
Statement by Foreign Minister E.N. van Kleffens at the Interallied Assembly held in St. James Palace, London, on September 24, 1941, demanding that removal of trade barriers stipulated in point four of the Atlantic Charter be carried through regardless of national sacrifices.

‘On behalf of the Netherlands Government I am happy to express adhesion to the declaration of principles which seems destined to be known in history as the Atlantic Charter.

 

We give our adhesion because it is our conviction that the principles underlying the charter, if properly applied, will go far to advance that better international order which is to bring to all countries international and national security and prosperity. We thank the President of the United States and the Prime Minister of His Britannic Majesty's Government in the United Kingdom for having taken this auspicious initiative.

 

I should like to add a statement, asking that it be put on record, on one specific point; the fourth of the joint British-American declaration, which says that the United States and the United Kingdom ‘will endeavor, with due respect for their existing obligations, to further enjoyment by all states, great or small, victor or vanquished, of access, on equal terms, to the trade and to the raw materials of the world which are needed for their economic prosperity.’

 

The words ‘with due respect for their existing obligations’ appear to be in the nature of a reservation, and in their strictly legal sense these words seem natural enough. But it seems to us equally natural that, if the object expressed in this fourth point of the declaration is to be achieved, such existing obligations should not be perpetuated, even as exceptions, when it is clear that their continued operation would seriously impair or diminish the beneficial effect which is to accrue to all from the application of the general rule. In our present world, which is only the morrow of yesterday's world with its nefarious autarchic tendencies, the very opposite of the spirit expressed in the Atlantic charter, we shall all have to do away, to some considerable extent, with measures designed to protect existing economic units. This will mean sacrifices for all, though these sacrifices will be worth the price if, as we confidently anticipate, greater national and international stability and greater prosperity is the result. Since in the economic field protection engenders protection, there should not be left in being, in our opinion, important exceptions to the general rule of free access to trade and raw materials on the basis of equal opportunities for all. Otherwise this fine principle, to which the Netherlands who has always stood for freedom of commerce professes full adhesion, would degenerate into a fine phrase. It does not seem to us out of place to state this explicitly: at the end of the last war, the same principle found solemn expression in almost identical terms, and we

all know what became of it when the snowball of protection was set rolling until it became so large that it was a serious obstacle in the path of international trade.

 

My Government therefore takes the reservation in point four to mean that, just as no existing obligation is invalidated by that point ipso facto, so no such obligation is thereby to be perpetuated. Further I should like to place on record the view of my Government that the highly important aims enunciated in point four of the declaration cannot be attained if considerable exceptions thereto are left in being. For that reason we express the earnest hope that, desirous as we are to see trade barriers removed and discriminatory treatment in international commerce abolished, a serious common effort be made to that end for the ultimate benefit of all.’

 

The Netherlands Government is a signatory to the following international declarations:

 

1.	The Atlantic Charter of August 15, 1941.
2.	The Resolution of eleven Allied countries of September 24, 1941 pledging cooperation in the preparation and distribution of relief supplies for occupied Europe.
3.	The Resolution of nine Allied countries signed in London on January 23, 1942 pledging the prosecution and punishment of war criminals.
4.	The Resolution of twelve Allied countries signed in London in December 1942 pledging punishment of those responsible for the slaughter and persecution of the Jewish people.