File No. 872.48/95

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

[Telegram]

4596. I have just received following note from Foreign Office:

July 20.

I have received from the Serbian Government a strong appeal for the release to the American Red Cross, represented by Doctor Ryan, of 2,000 tons of Roumanian grain controlled by the Allied Governments for importation into Serbia in view of the desperate state of starvation which is said to exist in various districts.

I have instructed His Majesty’s Minister at Bucharest to inform the United States Minister at that capital that as the Austrian and German Governments possess enormous stocks of foodstuffs in Roumania, it is for them in future to provide for the Serbian population.

In this connection I desire to draw your excellency’s attention to an official statement made by the Austrian Government on July 1 in the Politische Korrespondenz in which the following passage occurs.

As the Austro-Hungarian military authorities were and are still able to provide sufficient foodstuffs for the population of the occupied territories unaided, there is no need for the organization of a body with a view to undertaking the distribution and supervision of possible food supplies to Serbia from neutral countries such as is alleged to have been proposed in England at the suggestion of Bryce.

The military authorities are doing their duty of their own free will and are simply following the dictates of humanity without considering any of the obligations which in Lord Cecil’s opinion are due in return for the facilities granted in affording relief to Poland.

The concessions made to the relief committee of the American Red Cross and to the Geneva relief committee are not due to insufficient activity on the part of the Austro-Hungarian military authorities in connection with the revictualling of the population, but are entirely due to international politeness on the part of the Austro-Hungarian authorities with the humane desire to give relief to the suffering.

In view of this statement His Majesty’s Government assume that there is no necessity for the importation of any supplies into Serbia from neutral countries, and as the Austrian Government have committed themselves to this statement His Majesty’s Government will hold them responsible for any shortage of foodstuffs or any distress which may be found to exist in any part of Serbia. I have, however, instructed His Majesty’s Minister at Bucharest to inquire into the accuracy of this statement, and, in the event of his not being satisfied as to its accuracy, I have authorized him as a wholly exceptional measure to release the 2,000 tons of grain asked for by the Serbian Government, but to inform the United States Minister that in view of the above considerations this authorization can in no circumstances be repeated.

I should be glad if your excellency would bring these facts to the notice of the United States Government and would also communicate them to the Rockefeller Foundation, whose representative, Mr. Warwick Greene, is understood to be at the present moment at Belgrade or on his way thither from Berne.

I take this opportunity of pointing out the continual state of uncertainty in which the Allied Governments are placed by the fact that they never receive any official statement from the German or Austrian Governments as to their attitude towards the projects of relief which are periodically urged upon the Allied Governments by neutrals. The German and Austrian Governments confine themselves to communiqués in the press for purposes of propaganda and these communiqués frequently asseverate that there is no need for imported supplies at [Page 923] the very moment when the absolute necessity of importations is being represented to His Majesty’s Government by philanthropic American bodies.

For the Secretary of State:
Maurice de Bunsen

Copy of above has been forwarded to Warwick Greene.

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