File No. 763.72/552
The British Chargé d’Affaires (Barclay) to the Secretary of State
Memorandum
His Britannic Majesty’s Chargé d’Affaires presents his compliments to the United States Secretary of State and has the honour to acknowledge the receipt of his memorandum of August 13, in which, with reference to the action of Germany in placing contact mines in the North Sea and the right reserved by His Majesty’s Government to take similar measures in self-defence, the Secretary of State expresses the hope that His Majesty’s Government may not feel compelled to resort to a method of warfare which would appear to be contrary to the terms of the Hague convention of 1907 and impose upon the ships and lives of neutrals a needless menace when peaceably navigating the high seas.
His Majesty’s Chargé d’Affaires lost no time in fully informing His Majesty’s Government of the views which the Secretary of State was good enough to express in the memorandum under reply, and he now begs to communicate a further expression of Sir Edward Grey’s views as received by telegraph.
It is stated that there is no doubt whatever that automatic contact mines have been placed by Germany in the high seas where they are dangerous to merchant shipping, as a German mine-laying vessel was caught in the act. It is not alleged that they are a breach of any [Page 458] convention concluded at The Hague to which Germany is a party, but that does not make them less dangerous to merchant shipping.
His Majesty’s Government share the reluctance of the Secretary of State to see the practice extended and the danger to neutral shipping increased. At the same time His Majesty’s Chargé d’Aifaires is instructed to point out that if Great Britain refrains from adopting the methods of Germany, the result is that Germany receives immunity unless the neutral powers can find some means of making Germany feel that she cannot continue to preserve all facilities for receiving trade and supplies through neutral shipping while impeding British commerce by means the use of which by Great Britain is deprecated by the United States Government.
[Received August 20.]