Papers Relating to the Foreign Relations of the United States, 1917, Supplement 1, The World War

File No. 763.72/3328

The Argentine Ambassador ( Naón ) to the Secretary of State

[Translation]

No. DE–6

Washington , February 9, 1917 .

Mr. Secretary of State: Pursuant to instructions received from my Government I have the honor to address your excellency and enclose a copy of the note by which the Argentine Government answers the German Government’s note of January 31 last, announcing the unlimited resumption of submarine warfare and the blockade of Great Britain, France, and Italy.

I avail myself [etc.]

R. S. Naón

[Enclosure—Translation]

The Argentine Minister of Foreign Affairs ( Pueyrredon ) to the German Minister ( Bussche )

I have the honor to acknowledge receipt of your excellency’s note, date February 2, 1917, in which, announcing the Imperial Government’s decision of January 31 last to the representatives of the neutral powers at Berlin, you give notice that, owing to the exigencies of the war, maritime traffic will, from then on and with every available weapon, be hindered in the blockade zones surrounding Great Britain, France, and Italy, and in the western part of the Mediterranean. The Argentine Government deplores that His Imperial Majesty should have seen fit to adopt such extreme measures and declares that it will, as it has ever done, adjust its conduct to the principles and fundamental rules of international law.