File No. 841.10/6
The Ambassador in Great Britain ( Page) to the Secretary of State
[Telegram]
London,
March 26, 1917, 6 p.m.
[Received 8 p.m.]
[Received 8 p.m.]
5895. Your 4551, March 18 [16], 11 a.m. My investigations and conversations with officers in various departments of the British Government bring out the fact that much valuable time was lost in the early part of the war because prompter action was not taken on the following subjects:
- 1.
- A separate Department of Munitions ought to have been created at the very beginning and factories should have been put under Government control and regulation at once.
- 2.
- Conscription under the designation of national service for every man according to his capacity should have been immediately put into effect.
- 3.
- Contraband list should have been made complete at the very beginning and the blockade more promptly made effective.
- 4.
- The laying down of merchant shipping, especially small vessels, should have been ordered both in home and neutral shipyards to their utmost limit of production and a controller of shipping immediately appointed with large powers.
- 5.
- Rolling stock and railway equipment should have been treated in the same urgent fashion.
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