File No. 763.72112/2764
The Ambassador in Great Britain (Page) to the Secretary of State
[Received July 29, 8.30 p. m.]
4625. Your 3527, July 17, 6 p. m. I have to-day received the following memorandum from the Foreign Office:
The position of the Allied Governments in regard to the importation of medical supplies into enemy countries is that they cannot be called upon to admit a practice which has been forbidden in the case of every blockade established in the past.
They consider, moreover, that the Geneva convention obviously does not apply.
These questions of principle having been settled, frequent appeals have been made to the Allied Governments to make some concession as a matter of grace. His Majesty’s Government are always ready to mitigate the application of principles, but this can only be done if it is possible to draw and maintain some line beyond which the concession shall not apply. This is apparently recognized as reasonable, and various attempts have been made by the Department of State and by private persons in America to draw such a line.
One suggestion is that a neutral commission should be appointed in Germany to receive imported medical supplies and distribute them to enemy hospital organizations, but this suggestion offers no means of restricting in any way the amount of supplies imported. To meet this objection it has frequently been suggested that the Allied Governments should specify the kinds and amounts of medical supplies the importation of which into enemy countries they will be prepared to allow. But it is impossible to fix amounts in this way. One [Page 956] cannot ration the whole population of Germany and Austria in drugs and bandages. No ingenuity could estimate what might reasonably be needed by the population. It is equally difficult to lay down the kinds of goods which may be allowed. Even if such rations could be fixed, it would be practically impossible to enforce them without an amount of friction in the United States quite as great as that caused by the present total prohibition. The American Red Cross draws its supplies from an enormous number of small societies, sewing parties, etc., throughout the United States. These organizations send goods to the central Red Cross warehouses. Can the Red Cross allot a ration of goods of each class to each local society or club so that the total sent in will not exceed the ration allowed by the Allied Governments? Surely it is obvious that this is impossible. What would as a matter of fact happen would be that gifts would flow into the Red Cross warehouses in the United States just as they formerly did and that the Red Cross would be unable consistently to do anything else than forward applications to the Allied Governments for permission to ship the amounts collected, regardless of whether these amounts did or did not exceed the ration, thus putting the onus of refusal on the Allied Governments. There would follow refusals and consequent agitation. This was what occurred before and what the total prohibition was intended to stop.
His Majesty’s Government have given close consideration to the question and they have found themselves utterly unable to evolve any system by which general shipments of medical supplies, once permitted, could be kept within limits at all. Their reasons for not allowing unlimited supplies to go in have been frequently stated, viz., that the materials sent in would replace materials existing in enemy countries which could and undoubtedly would then be applied to other, and in many cases directly belligerent, purposes. It is impossible to evolve any scheme by which the free importation of cotton goods, rubber goods, clothing, etc., for hospital purposes can be reconciled with a blockade, and it is to be observed that it is such hospital supplies and not drugs or surgical instruments which form the bulk of the applications received in the past from the American Red Cross.
His Majesty’s Government on their part have therefore laid down the only workable distinction they could think of: namely, that American Red Cross supplies may be sent to American Red Cross units, wherever such units may be. They feel that no juster test could probably be found of the strength of humanitarian claims and the interest taken by the people of the United States in the needs of the Central Empires, than the extent to which the people of the United States are prepared to subscribe money or send doctors and nurses for hospital work in Germany and Austria. Wherever the sympathies and energy of Americans are manifested by the presence of Americans engaged in the relief of suffering, there American supplies can be freely imported and used. This is a very definite concession and opens a wide door to American philanthropy, and His Majesty’s Government can not understand why, if feeling in the United States is strong on this subject, this door should be allowed to remain closed.