File No. 841.10/4
The Ambassador in Great Britain ( Page) to the Secretary of State
[Received 12.45 p.m.]
5644. Would the Department consider it useful if I compiled a brief statement of the practical working value of legislation and regulations and orders and ordinances and practices that the British Government have found most useful since the war began? I could do this secretly, using of course all the principal men of my staff and attachés and confidentially consulting the several departments of the British Government to get their opinions of the relative values of their chief activities. “I am sure the Prime Minister would cause some doors to open that have hitherto been closed. They are now much more communicative than they have ever before been apparently, and I may be able to procure, against any emergency that may await us, some useful suggestions out of their actual experience.
Among the larger subjects that now occur to me are their actions concerning: finance and financial methods, railways, public utilities, shipping, internment methods and camps, perhaps secret-service methods, cooperation with allies, excess profits, controlled factories, volunteer committees, reorganization of executive departments, work of women, censorship methods and organization, and many more.
The naval and military attachés of course report continuously on their respective subjects. Please telegraph reply at once.1
- Answered Feb. 10, No. 4427, “By all means.”↩