File No. 103.95/560
The Ambassador in Great Britain ( Page) to the Secretary of State
[Received 9.24 p.m.]
10005. For Hurley1 from Stevens:2
The Allied Maritime Transport Council at its meeting at Paris May [April] 25, passed resolution providing that the necessary articles for revictualing the occupied districts in Belgium and northern France should be included in the program of the Wheat Executive, if that body consents. Under that resolution the Commission for Relief in Belgium is to use its own tonnage to the fullest capacity; any future tonnage necessary is to be found by the Associated Governments. The necessary arrangements with the Wheat Executive have not been completed, but the need of the populations in the occupied districts of Belgium and northern France is so critical that something must be done at once to meet this need.
I have been in constant conference with the British Minister of Shipping with a view to arriving at a temporary working agreement which will take care of the existing crisis. The result of these conferences is an agreement in principle that the British Government and the American Government are each to furnish one-half of the ships required in addition to those under the control of the C.R.B.
[Page 479]The best permanent solution seems to be that the C.R.B. should have the first call on the 200,000 [tons] dead weight of non-war-zone vessels to be acquired under the Swedish agreement. This would put the burden of meeting this service in equal proportion on America and Great Britain, as the Swedish tonnage will fall within the 50-50 agreement. Vessels secured under the Swedish agreement cannot, however, be depended upon to carry cargoes to Holland before late August or September.
As a temporary working arrangement for supplying the minimum requirements of the C.R.B. the British Government has agreed to the following program:
Immediate pressure is to be applied in order to secure for the C.R.B. the following seven vessels: Kronprins Gustaf Adolf and Pacific, now in United States ports; Kronprinsessan Margareta, Oscar Fredrik, Kronprins Gustaf, now in Sweden; Valparaiso, now at Buenos Aires; Tasmanic, now at New York.
It is estimated that these vessels can make ten voyages before September.
Great Britain will provide from ships under her control or by interchange arrangements with France and Italy, eight cargoes during the next three months, if America will agree to provide a similar number.
The most pressing immediate need is to take care of the necessary May loadings; nine ships to carry approximately 40,000 tons of foodstuffs will be required for this purpose. If Swedish vessels (1) Tasmanic, (2) Kronprins Adolf, (3) Pacific, can be secured, six additional vessels must be found. Great Britain will find three of these, leaving three for America to find.
In regard to June loadings, if Swedish vessels, (1) Kronprinsessan Margareta, (2) Kronprins Gustaf, (3) Oscar Fredrik, (4) Valparaiso can be secured, six further vessels must be found; Great Britain will arrange to provide three of these if America will arrange to provide the other three.
As regards July loadings this means three further cargoes can be loaded by the three Swedish vessels, which are to be loaded in May, making another voyage. This will leave four, of which Great Britain will provide two if America will provide the other two.
Mr. Poland, Director of the C.R.B. for Europe, states that the program set forth above is not sufficient to provide the approved minimum ration of the C.R.B., but it does provide the absolutely minimum amount of foodstuffs to be loaded in May. If the general principle that the ships needed by the C.R.B. shall be provided in equal shares by Great Britain and America is approved, the problem of meeting the deficit in June and July can be worked out later.
[Page 480]I most earnestly urge immediate and favorable action on their part and that the United States and Great Britain should provide in equal shares the ships needed for Belgian Relief. The ships for May loading should be assigned at once as the situation is very critical. Unless this is done the people of Belgium and northern France will starve.
Obviously the obligation to supply ships to Belgian Relief must be borne either by the United States or Great Britain, as these two countries have the most tonnage under their own flags and control most of the neutral tonnage. At the beginning of our negotiations the English insisted that America should provide all the ships for Belgian Relief. I have had great difficulty in securing agreement on their part to provide one-half the required tonnage in view of the aid in ships which England is giving to France and Italy and the losses she has sustained through the submarine campaign. I am satisfied that this proposal of sharing the burden of providing tonnage for Belgian Relief between Great Britain and the United States is the best solution possible.