File No. 855.48/728
The Ambassador in Great Britain ( Page) to the Secretary of State
[Received 4.30 p.m.]
9631. Your 7226, 11th. My 9507, April 13, 11 p.m. I have just received the following note from the Foreign Office:
The Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs presents his compliments to the United States Ambassador and with reference to His Excellency’s note of the 12th instant relative to a question of allocating 60,000 tons of shipping either for the transportation of United States troops and supplies to France or to the Belgian Relief, has the honor to inform Mr. Page that in replying as above it was assumed [Page 478] that the 60,000 tons of shipping referred to in the telegram from the Secretary of State in Washington was a particular block of tonnage allocated for the carriage of urgent military supplies. In these circumstances His Majesty’s Government did not feel [they ought] to take the responsibility of urging the allocation of this tonnage to Belgian Relief, although of course it is earnestly hoped that the United States Government observes [will], in addition to meeting their Army supply programme, be able also to provide the necessary assistance in tonnage to enable the Belgian Relief carrier [to carry] the minimum requirements of food-stuff, et cetera, to Rotterdam, and in fact a request to this effect has recently been sent from Belgian Relief in London to America.
Mr. Balfour would be most grateful if Mr. Page would be so good as to telegraph to the United States Government in the above sense in order that there may be no misunderstanding on the part of the United States Government as to the attitude which His Majesty’s Government are taking in regard to tonnage assistance for the Belgian Relief Commission.