File No. 150.07/53
The Acting Secretary of State to the British Ambassador (Spring Rice)
Washington, November 19, 1914.
No. 551]
Excellency: Referring to your excellency’s note of October 27 regarding the passage of British reservists from Canada through United States territory to ports of embarkation en route to the United Kingdom, and the Department’s reply thereto of November 17,1 I have the honor to inform your excellency that the Department is now in receipt of a communication from the Department of Labor stating that it is of the opinion that the assurance which your excellency has transmitted to this Government for the Government of Canada, that “so far as British reservists are concerned, any who may enter the United States from Canada en route to the United Kingdom will be permitted to return to Canada without difficulty [Page 570] if they should become public charges in this country, regardless of whether or not they have acquired Canadian domicile by three years residence in Canada,” is not broad enough to meet the situation or to correspond with similar assurances which other governments have extended in the matter. The Department of Labor suggests that, in lieu of the above assurance, which your excellency has already forwarded to this Government for the Government of Canada, a guarantee be furnished that the reservists would depart from and out of the United States, or return to Canada without expense to the United States, or any community therein.
As soon as your excellency’s reply to this communication is received the Department will again take the matter up with the Department of Labor.
Accept [etc.]
- Not printed.↩