File No. 841.711/605
The British Ambassador (Spring Rice) to the Counselor for the Department of State (Polk)
[Received June 5.]
Mr Dear Mr. Counsellor: I duly forwarded to the Foreign Office a copy of your letter to me of April 27, together with its enclosures, [Page 609] relative to the complaints of United States citizens in regard to our interference with the mails.1
I have now received a reply by telegraph stating that the majority of the letters mentioned cannot be traced without further particulars. These particulars required are, in the case of registered letters, the registered number and approximate date of dispatch and, in the case of other letters, the name of the ship by which the mail was carried and the date of sailing.
The letters addressed to Herr F. Missler, Bremen, would appear, in the opinion of the Foreign Office, to have been a proper object for seizure if the contents were as stated by the Braddock National Bank in their cashier’s letter of April 25.
As regards the other letters mentioned by that bank enquiry is still proceeding but, up to the present, enquiries have shown that these letters, though addressed to Holland, were occupied with the transfer of money to enemy countries by European money orders.
The Foreign Office desire me to point out to you that up to the present, in spite of vague accusations, they have only received about eight enquiries from the United States Ambassador as to particular mails, besides two other enquiries as to the treatment of shipping documents. In these last two cases His Majesty’s Government have proposed to adopt special arrangements and have taken measures to put them into effect as far as they are concerned. Of the others, five were answered by evidence that the mails in question had not been detained or unduly delayed and had already been forwarded to their destination. In the other three cases letters had been delayed but His Majesty’s Government promised to forward them at once.
Out of the four complaints received by the postal censor, one referred generally to the mail of the American Express Company and was answered by the assurance that all business correspondence would be expeditiously dealt with, while the other three, referring to particular letters, were answered by a statement that they had not been detained by the censor at all.
Sir Edward Grey instructs me to invite the State Department to make specific enquiries and to encourage private firms or persons to do so either to the Foreign Office or to the postal censor direct. All such enquiries will be gladly answered. At present His Majesty’s Government are much surprised that while frequent enquiries have been received in regard to letters addressed to or passing through the United Kingdom, enquiries as to these neutral mails have been so few. The inference is obvious.
I beg to add that I have received intimations as to cases where it would appear that letters and telegrams have been detained or destroyed for the express purpose of using these alleged facts for purposes of propaganda against your Department and this Embassy.
Finally I am desired to add that His Majesty’s Government repudiate positively the charge that they have detained business or private letters off any ship diverted on the high seas, except such as contained articles which are a proper subject for seizure and adjudication by the prize court.
[Page 610]The above is, of course, only an answer to your unofficial letter and does not refer to the official note.
I am [etc.]
- Not printed.↩