File No. 341.622a/123
The Ambassador in Great Britain ( Page ) to the Secretary of State
[Received May 12, 12.15 a. m.]
4284. Yours 3285, May 6, noon. I expressed to Sir Edward Grey your thanks for his verbal promise given to me and conveyed in my telegram No. 4252, May 5, 4 p. m., to release the persons taken from the American S. S. China, and I informally assured him with the [Page 642] greatest emphasis that if in his written communication to me he should call in question the principle involved, my Government would emphatically protest. He assured me that he would not do so. He showed me a draft of the communication which does not seem to me at all to question our position. He complies with your requirement for an expression of regret and contents himself with the harmless statement that after the war the whole subject of taking persons from neutral ships may be a profitable subject for friendly discussion in the light of the new experiences of this war.
He then informed me that since he gave me his verbal promise on May 5 he had received new facts then unknown to him and presumably unknown to you, concerning 15 of the 38 men who were removed from the China. He gave me the following written statement:
Persons taken off S. S. China. From list of names following have been traced: 8 of crews of enemy’s vessels at Shanghai, 3 Austrian officers, and 4 German reserve officers. Full details will be reported by post, but it has been ascertained that the majority were going back to Germany and had false passports which they destroyed before they were taken. The German consul provided the passage money in several instances.
Sir Edward Grey’s information is that these men are organized parts of armed forces.
Sir Edward Grey said that because he had given his promise to release all these 38 men, His Majesty’s Government stands ready to fulfil that promise; but in view of the foregoing new information about 15 of them, he hoped that our Government would consent to their retention if the proof of their organized status be acceptable to you. The documentary proofs that these 15 men are part of the organized forces of His [Majesty’s] enemies have been sent from China by post and are expected here about the end of this month. He will submit these proofs to me. He requests me to ask if in the meantime these men may be retained. The others will be released. I await instructions.