File No. 654.119/174
The Minister in Switzerland ( Stovall) to the Secretary of State
[Received April 8, 8.44 a.m.]
3023. The question of feeding Switzerland is rapidly assuming international importance. This is something more than a Swiss question. The best informed Swedes in Geneva, according to Doctor Herron, state that the refusal of Germany to guarantee safe conduct to ships with food would be an unfriendly act. The Swiss do not relish the idea of entire dependence upon Germany or being forced to accept food from the Central Powers. They do not wish to eat out of Germany’s hand but the fear of Germany is intense.
Swiss papers are warned to comment with care upon the situation. In semi-official communiqué the Swiss Government says it had never assumed that Germany has refused safe conduct to ships bringing food for Switzerland or that the recent sinking of the Spanish ship Sardinero can be accepted as an act of hostility. Switzerland prefers to wait until that affair is cleared up.
Any German offer of a compromise to allow wheat to cross the ocean providing it is transported under neutral flag would be viewed with suspicion in some quarters as a German promise likely to be broken. The Swiss papers persistently print reports that the United States may ship wheat from France to Switzerland, later replace these stocks in France.
Doctor Herron and his Geneva advisers suggest that the United States might as a last resort offer to convoy at least one passage across the Atlantic. The moral effect they say would be instantaneous and the strategic advantage fine. Anti-German feeling in Switzerland [Page 1608] is marked but the Swiss fear tremendous economic offensive beginning with the refusal to allow American food to reach this country. Doctor Herron’s full report on economic situation sent by mail.1
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