File No. 763.72114/122
The Ambassador in Germany ( Gerard ) to the Secretary of State
Berlin , December 19, 1914.
[Received December 21, 8:30 a.m.]
[Telegram]
1148. In your cable to me of October 27, 498, you suggest the advisability Chandler Anderson going to Germany to visit detention camps in order to report the condition of British prisoners in Germany to British Government. I answered November 2, 689, to Department, that German Government was willing that Anderson should come but wished that delegate from this Embassy should visit English and other camps where Germans were detained. Anderson came and was given every facility but when I attempted to name some one from this Embassy to inspect the detention camps in England I am met by Department’s orders of no further inspection. [Page 755] Anderson and Hale have sent in a report saying inspection was made some camps in England but they were not named by me or the German Government. The whole object of allowing Anderson to come into my jurisdiction was to allow the British to see that prisoners were well treated in Germany but he came on condition that some one named by me from here should visit the camps in England. I most respectfully urge that if it was necessary for Anderson to come here to convince the British, it is just as necessary that some one from here should go to England to convince the Germans; and besides, Anderson having been admitted under an understanding, the other side of the understanding should be carried out. The German Government feels, to put it mildly, that the issue of the order under these circumstances was not quite fair. This I have been given verbally to understand, and in addition I have received a note which refers to the fact that it is reported from Hanover that the United States has forbidden its representative to visit or inspect detention camps, continuing:
Such an order would have the result that the interests of German prisoners of war or detained Germans in belligerent countries would not be sufficiently looked after. The Foreign Office therefore begs the American Embassy to inform it whether such an order really has been issued and if such is the case, on what grounds.
I must also respectfully urge that if we are to take charge of British interests here, it is part of such duty to see that the prisoners, civil and war, are properly cared for. The neutrality of the United States is at present so questioned here and the reports of the bad conditions in the camps in England so widespread, that I hope you will ask the British Government to allow me to name some one to visit the camps in England. Probably when the order was issued you did not know that some one named by me had not made the return inspection in England. I assure you this matter is of the utmost importance.