File No. 763.72112/143
The Ambassador in Great Britain (Page) to the Secretary of State
London, October 3, 1914, 3 p.m.
[Received 6 p.m.]
[Telegram]
776. Conference with Grey continued to-day. He has given instructions for a new order in council to be drawn as follows: The list of absolute contraband will include articles used for manufacture of things for military use such as copper, hides, nickel, petroleum and rubber. There will also be a list of conditional contraband. The order will accept the Netherlands Government embargo on foodstuffs and will, as I previously telegraphed you, not detain cargoes of foodstuffs consigned to the Netherlands Government or to bona fide merchants in the Netherlands. If the last Netherlands embargo cannot be made effective, the British Government will revise its list of conditional contraband. I infer from Grey’s conversation that his Government will not be captious with the Netherlands Government about the movement of foodstuffs. His main purpose is to prevent the Germans from receiving war materials. The text of the new order in council he expects to have ready on Monday when he will give it to me.
The laying of anchored mines by the British may make the safest route for ships from America to Holland the route around Scotland, but the Admiralty is reported to have said to-day that a safe course will be left open [through?] the British Channel.