File No. 763.72/189

The Ambassador in Great Britain (Page) to the Secretary of State

[Telegram]

284. I have just heard a credible rumor that Austria has informed Germany that Austria will not join Germany in hostility to Great Britain. This fits in with what the Austrian Ambassador told me yesterday. I am now trying to verify this rumor.

Another rumor in diplomatic circles is that there is a likelihood that Italy may join France and England.

I hear that great Jewish bankers of the Continent, as well of Great Britain, are being forced to give their help to England, France and Russia. It seems to me of the very greatest importance that no belligerent power should have wireless stations on our shores and that no belligerent ships should leave our ports under guise of merchantmen.

All Europe is in the swiftest and most desperate war in history and events happen hourly that we are accustomed to think of as possible only in months.

The quickest action everywhere in the world is necessary.

American Ambassador