File No. 763.72112/468
The Secretary of State to the German Embassy
Receipt is acknowledged of the memorandum of the Imperial German Embassy of December 10, 1914, inquiring whether the United States Government is willing to prevent the British Government from seizing shipments of relative contraband, especially foodstuffs, from this country to Germany.
Soon after the outbreak of the present war, the Department suggested to the several belligerents the propriety of their adhering to the announcements of the so-called London convention as a working basis for the settlement of the rights of neutrals and belligerents in the several respects covered by that convention; but, not being able to obtain from the belligerents an acceptance of the announcements of the convention without conditions or modifications, the Department was impelled to withdraw its suggestion and to give notice to belligerents of its intention to abide by the rules of international law and international usage for the determination of the rights of its citizens as affected by the war.
The right of the citizens or subjects of a neutral country to trade with those of belligerents in all cases of non-contraband goods is plain as is also their right to trade with the subjects of belligerents in goods which are relative contraband, except where such goods are bound or destined for belligerent governments or as supplies for their armed forces.
It is not possible, in advance of the facts in particular cases in which its action may be invoked, for the Department to determine what action would: be appropriate, or what course the Department would pursue. However, the German Embassy is assured that it is the purpose of this Government to extend all appropriate assistance to its citizens whose goods may be seized or detained by any of the belligerents in violation of the rules of international law as those rules have received generally accepted interpretation, and that this policy will be pursued with strict impartiality as to all belligerents.
[Page 377]The Department regrets that it has found it necessary to interpose objection to the acts and practices of belligerents in certain instances, which the Department could but regard as failing in recognition of the right of neutrals.