File No. 763.72119/8265
The Secretary of State to the Minister in the Netherlands ( Garrett)
[Telegram]
Washington,
December 17, 1917, 4 p.m.
849. Referring to your 1767, December 15, 7 p.m., and my confidential telegram 848, December 16, you are instructed as follows:
Unless the neutral referred to in your telegram has official authority from the German Foreign Office to make the statement referred to by you, you will inform him that you can not receive the communication, and if you have received it you will return it to him immediately, stating that you are instructed to receive no communication except one that is official.
Lansing