File No. 124.551/12
The Minister in Belgium (Whitlock) to the Secretary of State
[Telegram]
I have to-day received by a citizen who got through from Ghent a letter from the Vice Consul at Ghent transmitting substance of two telegrams telephoned by the Consul General at Antwerp to Ghent: One, August 20 [19], approving my course of action;2 another, August 21, expressing the President’s desire that the Legation be moved immediately to Antwerp.3 I shall make every effort to carry out the President’s wishes at the earliest moment, but it is [Page 74] absolutely impossible to move the Legation under the existing circumstances. Brussels is surrounded by armies engaged in active operations and Antwerp with its ring of forts on the defensive is at present inaccessible. I call the Department’s attention to my August 6, 5 p.m.,1 and to Department’s August 7, 7 p.m.2
Acting under the discretionary powers granted I decided that my duty lay here in Brussels. The Spanish Minister reached the same conclusion as did the Ministers of seventeen other neutral powers. The representatives who went to Antwerp were the French, Russian and British Ministers whose nations were involved as belligerents and some others who went for personal reasons. Already entrusted with German interests here, I subsequently took over the British Legation and the protection of a large resident British colony. Owing to the disinterested position of the United States I have been able to render service, the extent and value of which must of course be estimated by someone else. It may not be amiss to say that for these services I have been thanked by the German commanding General, by representatives of the British colony, by the Interparliamentary Union and by an official of the Belgian Foreign Office on behalf of the King. As I reported to the Department in a telegram which evidently has not been received, the Spanish Minister and I made representations to the burgomaster before the occupation of Brussels which in connection with other considerations led him to abandon his intention of attempting a futile defense of his city which might have brought on a bombardment with all its terrible consequences. This service of course could not have been rendered had we been in Antwerp and under the circumstances the Department will not, I trust, consider me indelicate in saying that if I were to leave Brussels in this hour and take refuge in Antwerp, my action might be construed in an unfavorable light and would, I am sure, be regretted by those whom I have been trying to help. It would leave wholly without diplomatic representation or protection a large number of our own and other foreign citizens. I took the precaution, as reported in my August 6, 5 p.m., to arrange with Belgian Government all questions of protocol and courtesy and under these two heads are included all the actual duties that I could have discharged in Antwerp for the present. With Brussels occupied by the German troops and with the telegraph wires cut, communication with the Department may for a few days be difficult. The position of our Legation in this conflict is unique and happily so detached that being entirely without apprehension as to our personal safety we have been able to render certain humane service, scrupulously observing meanwhile all the requirements of our neutral position. I can assure the Department that our relations with the Belgian Government were never better than they are now and as soon as I can arrange to transfer the representation of German and British interests and turn over to some colleague the custody of Legation building and archives and the protection of the American colony and interests here and devise means of reaching Antwerp, I shall move the Legation thither.