Papers Relating to the Foreign Relations of the United States, The Lansing Papers, 1914–1920, Volume I

763.72/3264½

President Wilson to the Secretary of State

Washington, 12 February, 1917.

My Dear Mr. Secretary: I am obliged to concur in your conclusions with regard to this matter. I suggest that you reply to the Swiss Minister in the following sense:

I am requested by the President to say to you, in acknowledging the memorandum which you were kind enough to send me on the eleventh instant, that the Government of the United States would gladly discuss with the German Government any questions it might propose for discussion were it to withdraw its proclamation of the thirty-first of January, in which, suddenly and without previous intimation of any kind, it cancelled the assurances which it had given this Government on the fourth of May last, but that it does not feel that it can enter into any discussion with the German Government concerning the policy of submarine warfare against neutrals which it is now pursuing unless and until the German Government renews its assurances of the fourth of May and acts upon the assurance.

Faithfully Yours,

W. W.