File No. 763.72112/2735
The Acting Secretary of State to the Ambassador in Germany (Gerard)
3208. For your information. Count Bernstorff has to-day sent wireless message to his Government quoting the President as interested in milk shipments to Germany but that it is impossible for him to do anything in view of German Government’s approval of Taylor report. Bernstorff says he believes if need be proved to exist, public opinion here may force action, and asks instructions.
Question at issue is not whether there is need of milk, but whether there is actual starvation of children on such scale that the United States may on humanitarian grounds ask the Allied Governments to remove milk from their contraband list and permit its importation into Germany as relief measure. Department appreciates there is shortage of milk in Germany just as there is shortage of articles of consumption in other countries.