The S.S. Vasconia sailed from London for New York City in October 1947 with 144 crates of arms being returned to the American Committee, via the British Consul in New York, Sir Francis Evans. The consignment weighed over 14 tons.
Some extracts from letters received from donors were included in a file which I discovered in the Public Records Office.
“I am delighted to receive back in good condition the Remington rifle which I contributed some years ago in response to the appeal from England. As a matter of fact I had not supposed that I would see this rifle again.” – donor in Cleveland OH.
“This morning the Express Company returned the Krag rifle that I contributed to you in 1940. It is in perfect condition and when I replace it in my gun cabinet I will do so with gratification of the use to which it was dedicated.” – donor in San Francisco CA.
The American Committee reported that in a number of cases, their attempts to ship to ship the arms back to the donor had resulted in returned deliveries. Presumably the donors had died, or moved leaving no forwarding address. They decided to dispose of these arms locally and in their accounting figures the Committee reported that 36 cases of rifles and shotguns were sold to Francis Bannerman for $986, which suggests that they were not worth much. Sale of pistols and revolvers to J.F.Galef Inc. of New York City yielded $6149, suggesting that either a good many more handguns were disposed of, or that they were worth more.
There remained two crates, #145 and #146, that, for some reason, were not included in the original shipment. I have the manifests of these, which give some idea of the quantities in a crate, and the often incomplete details of the donor’s name and address. The question arose of whether these should be shipped back separately.
Charles Suydam Cutting of the American Committee, while admitting that the arms already received were a ‘small percentage of the total sent abroad’ suggested that the costs of doing so would be disproportionate (the American Committee had already paid the original consignment’s shipping charges) and that these arms should be sold locally and the proceeds given to a veteran’s organisation or a youth cadet organisation. (He also gives the date of the original shipment as January 1947 - which is right?)
A civil servant minuted “The difficulties involved in the return of these weapons is clear from the pathetically incomplete list of names and addresses attached to the N.Y. [consul’s] letter.”
One of the staff at the Consulate wrote: “The Consul-General and I agree that it would be a complete waste of effort to go through all the process again of returning these last few weapons, particularly since we confirmed that a large number of those who lent weapons to the Committee for the Defense of British Homes did not expect them back in the first place, and certainly not now that the so-called final shipment has been received and despatched. It is also extremely difficult to dispose of pistols and revolvers since State laws prevent them being sent through the post or through the railway express without all sorts of permits and permissions, and I notice that the majority of weapons still at Weedon are either pistols or revolvers.”
The main file dealing with the return shipment remains to be found (if it still exists).
There is also another file dealing with a late enquiry on the subject in 1955.
