Papers Relating to the Foreign Relations of the United States, 1914, Supplement, The World War

File No. 763.72/115

The Ambassador in Great Britain (Page) to the Secretary of State

American Embassy,
London, August 5, 1914, 2 a.m.
[Received August 4, 11:59 p.m.]

[Telegram]

269. It is everywhere understood that war with Germany begins at midnight to-night although no formal declaration will be made till to-morrow morning.

Rumors reach me from apparently trustworthy sources, which however now unconfirmed, that a large English force will be landed in Belgium between midnight and to-morrow morning and that the French and English fleets have united in the North Sea and that a naval battle with the German fleet is expected at any time.

American Ambassador