File No. 763.72112/559
The Ambassador iii Great Britain (Page) to the Secretary of State
London, December 30, 1914, 12 midnight.
[Received December 31, 8 a.m.]
[Telegram]
1368. The comment of the Times on your note this morning is kindly but rather perfunctory. The Westminster Gazette, which is understood often to speak for the Government, is friendly and sincere. Most of the other comment is yet, tentative, awaiting [publication] of the note. But there is a strong undercurrent of comment [Page 378] in the newspapers of somewhat less dignity to the effect that the note is proof of the influence of the German propaganda in the United States. In all the papers it shares the big headlines with the war. It has also been said to-day privately, both in official and unofficial circles, that domestic politics inspired it. The United States in several papers and in conversations of which I have [heard] is criticized for protesting about [trade] and failing to protest about Belgium. While, therefore, the more dignified and official reception, of it is courteous, there are evidences of a sharply critical feeling among a large class who say that the United States wishes to make money out of England’s misfortune.
There appears in the condensed report published here a very much harsher sentence than any sentence that the note itself contains and this harsh sentence is used in several large headlines. All the press and some of the ministers of neutral states have asked for full copies of the note and have, of course, in the absence of instructions from you been refused.
The note was delivered to the Foreign Office yesterday, the difficulty of accurately deciphering several passages having [delayed] its [delivery, as I] had expected and as I telegraphed you. But on Monday afternoon I informed Lord Haldane, then the Foreign Office, that I had received such a note which in would be sent to him the next day. I mention this because it was erroneously published here this afternoon that the note was not received at the Foreign Office till to-day, implying that it was given to press in the United States before it was delivered here. I sought Sir Edward Grey to-night and pointed out this error and he very cheerfully promised to see that it was corrected from the Foreign Office.