File No. 861.48/139

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

No. 4017

Sir: With reference to the previous correspondence regarding the relief of Poland, I have the honor to enclose herewith, for your information, copies of two telegrams which I have received from the Ambassador in Berlin under dates of May 30 and June 13,1 and also the copy of a note which I have received to-day from Sir Edward Grey, in the premises. Copies of this note are being transmitted to Berlin, Vienna, Brussels, and to Mr. Hoover, of the Commission for Relief in Belgium.

I have [etc.]

Walter Hines Page
[Enclosure]

The British Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs (Grey) to the American Ambassador (Page)

No. 106999/X

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]
  1. Not printed; see the telegrams of the same dates to the Secretary of State, Nos. 8934 and 3992, ante, pp. 89697.