File No. 763.72111Em1/13
In view of the importance of the subject in hand and of the delay which
would attend a transmission by pouch, I am venturing to bring to your
attention by telegraph certain actions on the part of the
Austro-Hungarian and German Governments which have come to my notice,
which form precedents, and which, although no doubt already known to the
Department, I feel it my duty to recall to your notice on this occasion.
The Embassy has ventured, unofficially, to recall these facts to the
Ministry of Foreign Affairs and did not omit to mention the large number
of so-called Mexican guns now in the hands of the Austro-Hungarian
troops, the shipment of which [Page 791]
to Mexico was prevented only by the outbreak of the present European
War, and likewise that American manufacturers of war materials could
transfer their plants to Canada with a facility equal to that evidenced
by the removal of the Belgian arms plant from Herstal to Germany, and
the still more recent removal of similar plants from the shores of the
Adriatic provinces—from Monfalcone, Pola, and Fiume—to safer places
within the Monarchy where they are now in operation.
It was further suggested that the proportion of arms and ammunition
supplied to the Allies by American manufacturers was probably much
exaggerated in the Austro-German mind; that no account seemed to be
taken of the fact that France and England, with her colonies, were
utilizing every available resource to this end; that American
manufacturers realized that the production of articles of this kind was
altogether of a temporary nature, and that one might be sure that their
attention had not been distracted thereby from the rich fields for
export in South America and Asia, which had formerly been supplied by
Europe, but which must now look to the United States for supplies. It
was reasonable to suppose that American business men had not lost sight
of the future advantages of gaining control of those markets in the
present circumstances, and that therefore the Nation can not be supposed
to have given itself up to the production of war material to the degree
to which Austro-German publicists seem to imagine; that, to the
contrary, should the United States mobilize her manufactories on the
lines at present followed in Great Britain, it is highly probable that
enough ammunition could, within a short time, be produced to supply the
wants of any of the belligerents.
[Enclosure—Translation]
The Austro-Hungarian Minister of Foreign
Affairs (
Burian
) to
the American Ambassador (
Penfield
)
No. 59,465/7]
Vienna
,
June 29, 1915.
The far-reaching effects which result from the fact that for a long
time the traffic in munitions of war to the greatest extent has been
carried on between the United States of America on the one hand and
Great Britain and its allies on the other, while Austria-Hungary as
well as Germany have been absolutely excluded from the American
market, have from the very beginning attracted the most serious
attention of the Imperial and Royal Government.
If now the undersigned permits himself to address himself to this
question, with which the Washington Cabinet has been concerned until
now only with the Imperial German Government, he follows the
injunction of imperative duty to protect the interests intrusted to
him from further serious damage which results from this situation as
well to Austria-Hungary as to the German Empire.
Although the Imperial and Royal Government is absolutely convinced
that the attitude of the Federal Government in this connection
emanates from no other intention than to maintain the strictest
neutrality and to conform to the letter of the provisions of
international treaties, nevertheless the question arises whether the
conditions as they have developed during the course of the war,
certainly independently of the will of the Federal Government, are
not such as in effect thwart the intentions of the Washington
Cabinet or even actually oppose them. In the affirmative case―and
affirmation, in the opinion of the Imperial and Royal Government,
can not be doubted―then immediately follows the further question
whether it would not seem possible, even imperative, that
appropriate measures be adopted toward bringing into full effect the
desire of the Federal Government to maintain an attitude of strict
parity with respect [Page 792] to
both belligerent parties. The Imperial and Royal Government does not
hesitate to answer also this question unqualifiedly in the
affirmative.
It can not certainly have escaped the attention of the American
Government, which has so eminently cooperated in the work of The
Hague, that the meaning and essence of neutrality are in no way
exhaustively dealt with in the fragmentary provisions of the
pertinent treaties. If one takes into consideration particularly the
genesis of Article 7 of the fifth and thirteenth conventions,
respectively, upon which the Federal Government clearly relies in
the present case, and the wording of which, as is in no way to be
denied, affords it a formal pretext for the toleration of traffic in
munitions of war now being carried on by the United States, it is
only necessary, in order to measure the true spirit and import of
this provision―which, moreover, appears to have been departed from
in the prevention of the delivery of vessels of war and in the
prevention of certain deliveries to vessels of war of belligerent
nations―to point out the fact that the detailed privileges conceded
to neutral states in the sense of the preamble to the
above-mentioned convention are limited by the requirements of
neutrality which conform to the universally recognized principles of
international law.
According to all authorities on international law who concern
themselves more particularly with the question now under
consideration, a neutral government may not permit traffic in
contraband of war to be carried on without hindrance when this
traffic assumes such a form or such dimensions that the neutrality
of the nation becomes involved thereby.
If any one of the various criteria which have been laid down in
science in this respect be used as a basis in determining the
permissibility of commerce in contraband, one reaches the conclusion
from each of these criteria that the exportation of war requisites
from the United States, as is being carried on in the present war,
is not to be brought into accord with the demands of neutrality.
The question now before us is surely not whether American industries
which are engaged in the manufacture of war material should be
protected from loss in the export trade that was theirs in times of
peace. Rather has that Industry soared to unimagined heights. In
order to turn out the huge quantities of arms, ammunition, and other
war material of every description ordered in the past months by
Great Britain and her allies from the United States, not only the
full capacity of the existing plants, but also their transformation
and enlargement and the creation of new large plants, as well as a
flocking of workmen of all trades into that branch of industry, in
brief, far-reaching changes of economic life encompassing the whole
country, became necesssary. From no quarter, then, can there come
any question of the right of the American Government to prohibit,
through the issuance of an embargo, that enormous exportation of war
implements that is openly carried on and, besides, is commonly known
to be availed of by only one of the parties to the war. If the
Federal Government would exercise that power it possesses, it could
not lay itself open to blame if, in order to keep within the
requirements of the law of the land, it adopted the course of
enacting a law. For while the principle obtains that a neutral state
may not alter the rules in force within its province concerning its
attitude toward belligerents while war is being waged, yet this
principle, as clearly appears from the preamble to the thirteenth
Hague convention, suffers an exception in the case “où l’expérience
acquise en démontrerait la nécessité pour la sauvegarde de ses
droits” [where experience has shown the necessity thereof for the
protection of its rights].
Moreover, this case is already established for the American
Government through the fact that Austria-Hungary, as well as
Germany, is cut off from all commercial intercourse with the United
States of America without the existence of a legal prerequisite
therefor―a legally constituted blockade.
In reply to the possible objection that, notwithstanding the
willingness of American industry to furnish merchandise to
Austria-Hungary and Germany as well as to Great Britain and her
allies, it is not possible for the United States of America to trade
with Austria-Hungary and Germany as the result of the war situation,
it may be pointed out that the Federal Government is undoubtedly in
a position to improve the situation described. It would be amply
sufficient to confront the opponents of Austria-Hungary and Germany
with the possibility of the prohibition of the exportation of
foodstuffs and raw materials in case legitimate commerce in these
articles between the Union [Page 793]
and the two Central Powers should not be allowed. If the Washington
Cabinet should find itself prepared for an action in this sense, it
would not only be following the tradition always held in such high
regard in the United States of contending for the freedom of
legitimate maritime commerce, but would also earn the high merit of
nullifying the wanton efforts of the enemies of Austria-Hungary and
Germany to use hunger as an ally.
The Imperial and Royal Government may therefore, in the spirit of the
excellent relations which have never ceased to exist between the
Austro-Hungarian Monarchy and the United States of America, appeal
to the Federal Government in sincere friendship, in view of the
expositions here set forth, to subject its previously adopted
standpoint in this so important, question to a mature
reconsideration. A revision of the attitude observed by the
Government of the Union in the sense of the views advocated by the
Imperial and Royal Government would, according to the convictions of
the latter, be not only within the bounds of the rights and
obligations of a neutral government, but also in close keeping with
those principles dictated by true humanity and love of peace which
the United States has ever written on its banner.
The undersigned has the honor to ask the good offices of his
excellency, the ambassador extraordinary and plenipotentiary of the
United States of America, Mr. Frederic
Courtland Penfield, to convey the foregoing by
telegram to the attention of the Washington Cabinet; he avails
himself [etc.]
