File No. 763.72/3298
The Minister in Switzerland (Stovall) to the Secretary of State
[Received February 12, 8.15 a.m.]
505. The following is the reply of the Swiss Government to the German note threatening indiscriminate submarine warfare. A similar reply mutatis mutandis has been addressed to the Government of Austria-Hungary. After repeating the substance of the German note the Swiss reply states:
The Imperial Government could not fail to notice that the measures stated in its note constitute a grave encroachment upon the rights of peaceful trading granted Switzerland as a neutral nation by international law.
The blockade of practically all the ports upon which Switzerland depends constitutes, indeed, a serious menace for the maintenance of our supplies of food and raw material as well as of our exports abroad. Even if, by a friendly agreement with the French Government, the port of Cette, outside the blockaded zone, be used, transportation by sea is limited to such an extent that the most serious damage will be done to our economic welfare.
The blockade established by the Imperial Government follows a series of measures taken by both groups of belligerents in the course of the war by which, in contradiction to international law and international agreements, our economic life has been restricted and [Page 129] against which we have raised our voice in vain. Under all these circumstances the blockade is rendered all the more pressing and grave.
The Federal Council, therefore, is obliged to protest with energy and to reserve all its legal rights against the blockade announced by the Imperial Government and its execution in so far as the rights of neutrals, as recognized by the principles of international law, may be violated. Especially in case the actual enforcement of the blockade should prove incomplete, the Federal Council reserves all its legal rights should Swiss citizens or property be destroyed by the measures applied by Germany and its allies.
The Federal Council, moreover, does not doubt that the German Government will do everything necessary to assure, as far as possible, the security of Swiss citizens and to avoid the painful consequences which the blockade may cause to the economic life of Switzerland.