File No. 861.48/139
[Enclosure]
The British Secretary of State for Foreign
Affairs (Grey) to
the American Ambassador (Page)
No. 106999/X
London,
June 15, 1916
.
My Dear Ambassador: I have the honour
to acknowledge the receipt of your letter of June 2d in which
you are good enough to communicate the reply received from the
German Government to the proposals of His Majesty’s Government
for the relief of Poland.
The phrase somewhat loosely used in this reply as to the
arrangement being made “to apply to all Polish territory
occupied by Germany commencing fifty kilometers back of the
firing line” is, I suppose, intended to allude only to the
responsibility assumed by the German Government to feed this
area, and does not imply an attempt on the part of the German
Government to extend the importations of foodstuffs to be made
by the American commission to any other districts but the cities
specified in the original proposal which you handed to me, and
in my reply. His Majesty’s Government could not, of course, for
a moment consider importations to other destinations besides
those towns; but I do not know whether His Majesty’s Government
are to understand that the German Government intend to allow the
population within fifty kilometers of the firing line to
starve.
[Page 899]
I do not think it is necessary, at this point in the discussions,
to enter into any detailed analysis of the German reply, and I
will confine myself to the two points of primary importance
raised in it.
The German Government disclaims any responsibility for the relief
of Serbia, Montenegro, and Albania on the ground that it is the
Austro-Hungarian Government which is in control of those
countries. I cannot accept this disclaimer knowing to what
extent the policy of the Central Empires is controlled by the
German Government and knowing that it is therefore not a
question of the German Government exerting its “good offices”
with the Austro-Hungarian Government, but of the two Governments
jointly assuming a responsibility towards the population whose
territory has been invaded by their joint armies. Nothing short
of a binding engagement of this kind, which the Central powers
are perfectly able to give, can satisfy the Governments of the
Allies, who, in this matter are only asking for the same measure
of joint action on the part of their enemies which they
themselves have already taken in their consultations and their
decision upon this question of Polish relief.
The second point is, to my mind, of even greater importance. The
German Government disclaims responsibility for the Polish
territory occupied by Austria on the ground that that territory
is not within the sphere of Germany’s control. The Governments
of the Allies regard Poland as a whole, and they cannot allow
the fate of its population and the question of life and death
whether that population shall or shall not die of hunger, to be
parcelled out between Germany and Austria, each country claiming
a part of Poland in connection with their political schemes for
the future, and each disclaiming responsibility for the part
occupied by the other. Until there is agreement between the
Governments of the Central Empires to throw the resources of the
whole country into one, and to give to the Poles, as Poles, the
produce of the soil of their own country, the Governments of the
Allies can not move. This is a question of principle, but even
were it not so, the conduct of the Austro-Hungarian Government,
as it is developing at the present moment in southern Poland,
would make it impossible for His Majesty’s Government to leave
that region out of account in the scheme of relief. I annex
hereto a copy of an order issued by the Austrian Governor
General of Lublin which throws sufficient light on the methods
of coercion and the intentions of exploitation which the
Austrian Government are employing and cherishing.
For the rest, we must adhere to our original demands, which I
still believe would be accepted as reasonable if the German and
Austrian Governments were sincere, and I can only trust that the
efforts of the United States representatives in enemy countries
and of the representatives of the American relief organizations
will soon elicit a more satisfactory reply from the Governments
of the Central Empires.
Believe me [etc.]
[File copy not signed]
