File No. 763.72119/7730
The Ambassador in Great Britain ( Page) to the Secretary of State
[Received 2.57 p.m.]
8910. My 8815, February 26, 8 p.m.1 I have just learned that on March 1 the King of Spain sent a wireless message to the Emperor of Austria through Fürstenberg acquainting His Majesty that the Spanish Ambassador at Washington had reported that he had communicated the King’s message to the President on February 25. The Ambassador had stated that the President read it with care and remarked that it was transcendental but that its receipt placed him in a somewhat embarrassing position as he had expressed himself as opposed to secret negotiations. He welcomed the King’s intervention. He would have to examine the communication with care before replying. The Ambassador had added that while it was difficult to penetrate the President’s reserve he was left with the impression that the receipt of the communication was an enormous surprise to the President.
The above is a summary of a translation which probably suffered by being several times removed from the language in which the interview took place.
King Alfonso’s message also contained his Ambassador’s version of the latter’s remarks to the President at the interview but most of this is unintelligible owing to many of the cipher groups having been “jammed.”
In another telegram of the same date to Czernin Fürstenberg reported that he had been able to satisfy himself through other sources (presumably either through knowledge of the Spanish cipher or through persons in the King’s entourage) that His Majesty’s version of his Ambassador’s report was accurate in all essential particulars.