File No. 763.72/3286
The Ambassador in Chile ( Shea) to the Secretary of State
[Received February 10, 12.30 a.m.]
Your February 3, 1 p.m. I received this afternoon a note from the Minister for Foreign Affairs in reply to my note of the 4th instant, which after referring to my note, continues:
It is inferred from the foregoing that the declaration of the German Empire relative to the establishment of zones of blockade on the European coasts has for the United States a double significance; a general one, which is the restriction of the rights of neutrality, and another that concerns the United States privately, the renewal of acts which the United States had previously and clearly condemned and against which a warning had been expressed in a note of April 18, 1916, to ignore which would result in a rupture of diplomatic relations.
Replying to the query contained in your excellency’s note relative to the attitude that will be assumed by Chile in view of the declaration of Germany, to which reference has been made, it is my duty to inform your excellency that Chile defined its situation in a note to the German Empire dated the 8th instant. (Here insert quoted portion my telegram February 8, 10 p.m.) My Government considers that this attitude also [serves] the purposes of [juridical] unity pursued by the United States in favor of the general rights of neutrality and the high purposes of world peace which are referred to in the above-mentioned note of your excellency.