763.72112/988½
The Secretary of State to President Wilson
My Dear Mr. President: I am sending you the note to Page, drawn in accordance with your instructions, with a few changes so indicated that you can either approve them or cross them out.
The note from Mr. Lansing, which I enclose,67 explains those which he has suggested.
The three which I suggest—(I might add with Mr. Lansing’s approval)—are as follows:
1. About the middle of page 5 of your notes, I beg to suggest the substitution of the following: “unusual risks and penalties”, instead of “similar risks and in large measure to the same penalties”.68
It would not be quite accurate to say that the risks and penalties are similar, or in a large measure the same, because the Orders in Council clearly discriminate between the treatment of merchandise destined to an enemy country through a neutral country, and the treatment of merchandise that attempts to run the blockade. It is correct, however, to say that the risks and penalties are unusual
2. On page 8 of your notes, about the middle of the page, I suggest the addition of the words—“insofar as they affect neutral rights”.69
We are speaking of acts of retaliation and I take it for granted that your language is intended to refer to retaliation only insofar as retaliation affects neutral rights.
3. Upon reading the concluding paragraph of the note it struck me as ending rather bluntly, and I suggested to Mr. Lansing a little sweetening in the form of a reiteration of the friendly spirit in which the answer is made. Mr. Lansing and I have gone over it together, and the following is the result of our collaboration:
“In conclusion you will reiterate to His Majesty’s Government that this statement of the views of the Government of the United States is made in the most friendly spirit, and in accordance with the uniform candor which has characterized the relations of the Governments in the past, and which has been in large measure the foundation of the peace and amity existing between the two nations without interruption for a century”.70
I am sure you will pardon me for making these suggestions, in compliance with your request. They are not very material, but are submitted for your consideration.
Allow me to say in conclusion what I possibly should have said in the beginning of this note, namely that I am very much pleased with the note and believe that it will find popular endorsement. The [Page 296] position which you take is very clearly and strongly stated and yet due consideration is given to the exigencies that call forth the Order in Council and to the promises which they make in regard to its enforcement.
With Assurances [etc.]
- Ante, p. 294.↩
- For the context of this passage in the note as sent, see Foreign Relations, 1915, supp., p. 153. end of third paragraph.↩
- Ibid., p. 154, end of first paragraph.↩
- Ibid., p. 156, third paragraph.↩