File No. 763.72/3353
The Minister in Switzerland (Stovall) to the Secretary of State
[Received February 20, 7 a.m.]
545. The press of the French-speaking cantons of Switzerland has criticized the Swiss Minister at Washington for his activities in behalf of the German offer to secure, without withdrawing the threat of indiscriminate submarine warfare, a renewal of diplomatic relations with the United States.1 The basis of these criticisms is that it is not clear that Doctor Ritter’s proposal originated with the German Government in the form in which it was presented by him. A semiofficial communiqué issued yesterday in Berne reads as follows:
The steps taken by Minister Ritter at Washington, tending to a renewal of negotiations between the German Government and that of the United States, have been undertaken without instructions from the Swiss Federal Council or from the Political Department. It will be readily understood that no explanations can be given at Berne as to correspondence between Berlin and Washington which the Federal authorities only transmit without naturally taking any responsibility whatsoever.
The German Government has issued through Wolff Bureau the following official communiqué regarding these pourparlers. This communiqué has been widely published in the neutral press of Europe and reads as follows:
The press has printed a Reuter’s agency despatch stating that the Berlin Government had requested Switzerland to inform the Washington Government that Germany remained disposed to negotiate with the United States in regard to the note establishing the blockade and the submarine war provided that the commercial blockade ordered against England were not interfered with by these pourparlers. The Reuter’s agency despatch adds that the Government of the United States then communicated to Mr. Ritter, Swiss Minister at Washington, that it could not begin negotiations before Germany had renewed its promises made after the Sussex affair and had [Page 137] withdrawn its decision concerning the aggravation of the submarine war.
The following are the true facts upon which the Reuter’s agency despatch is based:
The Swiss Government transmitted to the German Government a telegram from the Swiss Minister at Washington offering, if Germany consented, to serve as intermediary in pourparlers with the American Government in regard to the declaration of the blockade, as the danger of a German-American war could in this way be diminished. The Swiss Government has been requested to inform its Minister at Washington that Germany remained as before disposed to negotiate with the United States on condition that the commercial blockade against its enemies—not only against England—were not jeopardized by these negotiations. It is, generally speaking, scarcely necessary to say that Germany could not enter into negotiations of this character before diplomatic relations had been reestablished between Germany and the United States. Moreover the object of these pourparlers must be limited exclusively to certain concessions regarding the transportation of American passengers in order that the stoppage of importations from abroad, established against our enemies by means of unrestricted submarine warfare, be not weakened in any way whatsoever, even if diplomatic relations should be reestablished. This was all clearly set out in its response to the Swiss Minister at Washington. As has already been repeated by official circles, Germany will not reconsider its resolution to completely stop by submarines all importations from abroad by its enemies.