File No. 763.72/3278
The Minister in Uruguay ( Jeffery) to the Secretary of State
[Received February 9, 1917, 2.40 p.m.]
In pursuance of Department’s instruction, circular February 3, 1 p.m., immediately communicated with Foreign Office which made reply late yesterday and transmitted therewith copy of note handed the German Chargé d’Affaires at same time relative to German notification of change in character of submarine warfare.
Note of Uruguayan Government states:
The Uruguayan Government, which has previously supported the efforts made by the United States in defence of the rights and interests of neutrals, recognizes the justice and nobility of the sentiments which have served as guide to President Wilson in this emergency. The Government of Uruguay has answered the note of the German Government rejecting the doctrine upon which it relies to carry on submarine warfare without restrictions.
In the enclosed copy your excellency will find the grounds upon which the Uruguayan protest is based.
The Uruguayan reply proceeds at once to combat vigorously the point of view assumed by Germany, stating:
. . . . . . . . . . . . . .
In view of these circumstances and after a careful and tranquil consideration of the case, the Uruguayan Government believes it a duty to inform the German Government that it can not accept for its citizens, commerce, and vessels the restrictions imposed upon it through the undefined zone of blockade and the form of the submarine campaign.
It still hopes that the Imperial Government will maintain its actions within the limits of right, respecting those principles of humanity and justice so often upheld by its best thinkers which have been the bases of the friendly relations cultivated without alteration by our two countries; but, notwithstanding this hope, this Government reserves the right, which the great German international [Page 229] jurist called indisputable, to take appropriate measures not only against procedure which is contrary to international usages but also against arbitrary excesses which menace. Baltasar Brum.