File No. 763.72112/116
The Ambassador in Germany ( Gerard ) to the Secretary of State
Berlin , August 28, 1914, 5 p.m.
[Received August 29, 9 p.m.]
[Telegram]
Supplementing my August 28, 12 noon [11 a.m.]. Foreign Office recites following cases where England and France have not observed Declaration of London
- (1)
- Aircraft and component parts, declared absolute contraband by both governments, contrary to Article 24, No. 8.
- (2)
- British naval forces have seized as conditional contraband, contrary to Article 35: gold for German private banks found on Dutch vessel Tubantia bound for Amsterdam; asphalt shipment of German Trinidad Company found on Norwegian vessel Kylemore bound for Rotterdam; coal belonging to German firm on Norwegian vessel Ferm bound for Caleta Coloso. These shipments destined for private parties and not for German armed forces, so cannot be held to be conditional contraband or considered requisitions under paragraph 2 or remarks to Article 29.
- (3)
-
British and French naval forces are taking Germans of military age but not embodied in armed forces from neutral vessels as prisoners of war: thus from Dutch vessels Tubantia at Plymouth and Potsdam at Falmouth; from Italian vessels Re Vittorio and Ancona at Gibraltar; from Norwegian vessel Norwega at Bergen; from Spanish vessel Sister at Marseilles.
The German Government maintain this action [violates?] Article 45, since the persons arrested are not active military persons. The German Government inquire whether the American Government will acquiesce in such violations of the Declaration of London by Great Britain, France, or Russia.