File No. 763.72/5178
The Minister in Denmark ( Egan) to the Secretary of State
[Received June 7, 3 a.m.]
732. Kölnische Zeitung, June 4, says:
Concerning the prospects of sending American assistance to France, Captain Meyer has the following to say in the St. Galler Tagblatt of May 31:
Assuming that America will have on October 1 an army of half a million men fully trained and ready to be transported it will be necessary to have a half-million tons of ships if one wishes to transport an army corps at a time. For two army corps one million. So much tonnage will not be available then for by that time there will have been sunk at least two or two and a half million tons more. Even allowing for the new vessels being built and the putting into service of the seized German ships it will take six or seven months to transport a half-million American troops to Europe. During the entire winter a million tons will be withdrawn from regular shipping service for this purpose. After that it will require a half-million tons to maintain the troops transported. Here is the entire question of ship tonnage in all its difficulty.
The above calculation shows that the assumption that it is possible for America to enter the war with one or two million men is pure hallucination.