File No. 763.72115/3101A
The Secretary of State to the Chargé in Germany ( Grew )
3621. You are instructed to obtain as soon as possible an interview with the Chancellor and repeat verbatim to him the following:
[Page 71]The Government of the United States has learned with the greatest concern and regret of the policy of the German Government to deport from Belgium a portion of the civilian population for the purpose of forcing them to labor in Germany, and is constrained to protest in a friendly spirit, but most solemnly, against this action, which is in contravention of all precedent and of those humane principles of international practice which have long been accepted and followed by civilized nations in their treatment of non-combatants in conquered territory. Furthermore the Government of the United States is convinced that the effect of this policy, if pursued, will in all probability be fatal to the Belgian relief work, so humanely planned and so successfully carried out, a result which would be generally deplored and which, it is assumed, would seriously embarrass the German Government.
You will also leave a copy in writing of the foregoing with the Chancellor.
You will please represent to the Chancellor, confidentially and very earnestly, the very serious unfavorable reaction in the public opinion of this country caused by the Belgian deportations at a time when that opinion was more nearly approaching a balance of judgments as to the issues of the war than ever before; and also, and more particularly, the great embarrassment which that reaction has caused the President in regard to taking steps looking towards peace. You are authorized to say that the President is watching the whole situation with the utmost solicitude, having the desire and definite purpose to be of service in that great matter at the earliest possible moment, and has been repeatedly distressed to have his hopes frustrated and his occasion destroyed by such unhappy incidents as the sinking of the Marina and the Arabia and the Belgian deportations. You are also authorized to say that the President has noted with the deepest interest your report in a recent despatch of the evident distress and disappointment of the Chancellor that nothing had come of his intimations about peace, and that what the President is now earnestly desiring is practical cooperation on the part of the German authorities in creating a favorable opportunity for some affirmative action by him in the interest of an early restoration of peace.