File No. 763.72/1780
The Ambassador in Great Britain ( Page ) to the Secretary of State 2
[Received 5.30 p. m.]
2130. Rush for the President:
Please transmit following to Berlin Embassy immediately:
Have concluded to cable my suggestion rather than delay it by letter. Can you not induce the German Government to answer our note by proposing that if England will permit foodstuffs in the near future to go to neutral ports without question, Germany will discontinue her submarine warfare on merchant vessels and will also discontinue the use of poison gas? Such a proposal [Page 401] from Germany at this time will give her great advantage, and in my opinion she will make a grave mistake if she does not seize it.
Edward House
[The full text of the British memorandum dealing with detained ships and cargoes, which was published in the London press on May 20, 1915, is printed below, page 427. The summary thereof contained in the telegram received from the Ambassador in Great Britain on May 19, 1915, 5.30 p. m. (No. 2129), is therefore not here printed. The reply thereto of the Secretary of State, in which certain paragraphs relating to cotton arrangements are discussed, is printed above, page 190.]
- Repeated to the Ambassador in Germany, No. 1712, May 19.↩