File No. 763.72112/2725

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

[Telegram]

4553. Your 3474, June 30, 7 p. m.1 I have received the following reply from Sir Edward Grey:

I have the honour to acknowledge receipt of your excellency’s note of the 22d ultimo regarding the proposal put forward by the American Red Cross with a view to facilitate the shipment of Red Cross supplies from the United States to the Central powers.

I have carefully considered this proposal but I am at a loss to understand the suggestion made by the American Red Cross and quoted in your excellency’s note that the policy pursued by His Majesty’s Government is contrary to the provisions of the Geneva convention. His Majesty’s Government have in fact always taken the most scrupulous care to observe the provisions of this convention and they cannot appreciate how the present subject at all falls within its scope. In this connection your excellency may be interested to read the annexed statement published in the New York Times on the 12th May last, which sets forth the views of the French Government on the claims of the American Red Cross.

His Majesty’s Government have no reason to believe that there is an absolute lack in the territory of the Central powers of the materials required for Red Cross supplies; they have, on the contrary, every reason to suppose the reverse for, to give only one instance, not long ago a medical member of the Austrian general staff, Professor Hochenegg, wrote to the Neue Freie Presse stating that there was no shortage and no prospect of shortage in medicines or bandages, nor even in highly special medical remedies, so that Austria was hardly concerned in the success of the protest made by the American Red Cross against the obstacles placed by the Allies in the way of the export of such articles from America. In these circumstances it is evident that if any deficiencies in these supplies exist, as to which there appears to be no evidence, it must be due to the fact that the Central powers prefer to use the materials for other purposes, and any steps that may be taken to give them further supplies would conduce, not to the increased welfare of the sick and wounded, but merely to set free larger quantities of such materials for belligerent purposes.

His Majesty’s Government do not, therefore, feel able to create such an entirely new precedent as would be constituted by the supervisory commission suggested by the American Red Cross.

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