File No. 872.48/69
The British Ambassador (Spring Rice) to the Secretary of State
[Received April 22.]
My Dear Mr. Secretary: I have received a telegram from my Government requesting me to convey to Doctor Ryan the views of the British authorities with regard to the proposal to send a neutral medical and sanitary mission into Serbia to care for the civil population. I have been unable to ascertain exactly the present whereabouts of Doctor Ryan, though I am informed that he is believed to be in Corsica, and I venture therefore to enquire whether the Department of State could communicate to him the views of His Majesty’s Government, which are as follows:
The British Government are ready to approve the proposal to send a mission to Serbia, and would raise no objection to such a mission’s taking in a certain quantity of supplies for the use of its own staff; sufficient, say, for a period of one month. His Majesty’s Government are, however, most strongly of the opinion that the duties of such a mission should not be complicated by endeavouring to undertake [Page 920] the introduction of foodstuffs into Serbia on the same lines on which this work has been done in Belgium. Some 120 thousand tons of grain and vegetables a month are now being sent from Roumania into Germany and Austria, and the Austrian Government are thus in a position easily to undertake the supply of the Serbian population. In the case of Belgium the absolute obstacles to ordinary importations rendered the institution of the Belgian Relief Commission a necessity, but the intervention of a neutral relief organisation in Serbia would not be justified by the existence of such obstacles, and would merely relieve the Austrian Government of their responsibility. The extent, moreover, to which the Austrian Government are now taking livestock and domestic produce from Serbia is such as to make His Majesty’s Government regard it as hopeless to expect to reach, in the case of Serbia, even the unsatisfactory measure of guarantees which have been secured in the case of Belgium.
Believe me [etc.]