Papers Relating to the Foreign Relations of the United States, 1914, Supplement, The World War

File No. 711.0012/532r

The Secretary of State to the Minister in Belgium (Whitlock)¹

Department of State,
Washington, September 15, 1914.

[Telegram]

We have just signed treaties with Great Britain, France, Spain and China.² These with the twenty-two previously signed connect this Government with more than two thirds of the population of the globe by peace treaties which provide for investigation in all cases before hostilities can be commenced. Please say to the sovereign to whom you are accredited that this Government will be pleased to make a similar treaty with him.

W. J. Bryan

1. The same to the Ambassadors in Germany, Austria-Hungary, and Russia.
2. See Foreign Relations, 1914, p. 304; 1915, p. 380; 1914, p. 1082; 1915, p. 41.