File No. 763.72112/2527
The Secretary of State to the Ambassador in Great Britain (Page)1
Sir: With reference to the announcement made by the British Foreign Office, under date of April 13, 1916, of the intention of the British Government to treat alike absolute and conditional contraband, you are instructed to communicate to the Foreign Office a formal reservation, in regard to this announcement, in the sense that, in view of the established practice of a number of maritime nations, including Great Britain and the United States, of distinguishing between absolute and conditional contraband, the Government or the United States is impelled to notify the British Government of the reservation of all rights of the United States or its citizens in respect of any American interests which may be adversely affected by the abolition of the distinction between these two classes of contraband, or by the illegal extension of the contraband lists during the present war by Great Britain or her allies.
I am [etc.]
- Repeated to the Ambassadors in France (No. 1418), Italy (No. 444), and Russia (No. 247), with instructions to present copies to the Governments of those countries for their information.↩