File No. 867.48/369
Memorandum communicated by the Third Assistant Secretary of State to the French Ambassador (Jusserand), July 31, 1916
Some weeks ago the Department was requested by the French Ambassador to endeavor to secure permission from the Turkish Government for the importation of food and other relief supplies into Syria and their distribution among the starving inhabitants of that region. Ever since this request was received the Department has not ceased to endeavor to secure the desired permission. Several notes on this subject have been sent to the Turkish Government, and the American Chargé d’Affaires has had a number of interviews with various Turkish officials on this subject. As yet, however, the Department has not succeeded in bringing this matter to a satisfactory conclusion.
It has now been suggested to the Department that the most effective, and possibly the only method, of securing the desired permission for the importation of foodstuffs into Syria, would be through the cooperation of the German and Austro-Hungarian Governments. It is thought by some of those on the ground in Turkey that the Turkish Government would heed requests from the rulers of these countries while they would not grant the desired permission at the request of any neutral country. The Department has therefore been urged to attempt to secure such cooperation on the part of the German and Austro-Hungarian Governments.
The success of any such request by the United States Government of the German and Austro-Hungarian Governments is at the present time rendered much more doubtful and difficult on account of the failure of the United States to secure certain desired concessions on behalf of Germany from the Allied Governments. For example, the British Government still persists in its refusal to permit Red Cross supplies to be sent from America to Germany.1
[Page 934]Under these conditions it is perhaps possible that the desired cooperation of Germany and Austria-Hungary in the matter of Syrian relief might be more readily obtained if the Allied Governments were willing to make some concession in the rigidity of the blockade, in the interests of humanity—such a concession, for example, as that of permitting Red Cross supplies to be sent from the United States to Germany and Austria. The Department would receive with interest any expression of opinion upon this suggestion which the French Government or those of its allies may deem it proper to make.