File No. 701.6311/233
The Ambassador in Great Britain (Page) to the Secretary of State
[Received 9.30 p. m.]
5218. Your 4044, 14th, and 4086, 25th.1 I have to-day received a note from Lord Grey which I quote in full as follows:
I have had the honour of receiving your excellency’s note No. 1109 of the 15th instant, in which you informed me of the appointment of Count Tarnowski to be Austro-Hungarian Ambassador to the United States and transmitted a request from the Government for a safe-conduct for that Ambassador and his suite and their baggage.
I have the honour to state in reply that His Majesty’s Government regret that they do not see their way to accede to this request. Even supposing that international law forbade a belligerent to obstruct the movements of diplomatic agents sent by his enemy to neutral countries, the German and Austro-Hungarian embassies and legations in neutral countries have during the war engaged in activities lying so far outside the range of their diplomatic functions that they cannot be treated with special consideration by His Majesty’s Government.