Office of the Historian

File No. 763.72114/3135

The Secretary of State to the Ambassador in Great Britain ( Page)

No. 5630
Washington, January 5, 1918.

Sir: The Department acknowledges the receipt of your despatch No. 7776, of December 14, 1917, transmitting a copy of a letter dated December 13, 1917, received from Mr. Kidston of the British Foreign Office, regarding remittances to enemy and enemy-occupied territory.1

You may inform the Foreign Office in reply that the licenses issued by the War Trade Board authorizing such remittances specify that all communications having to do with the transactions so authorized must first pass through the hands of the War Trade Board and are then forwarded by the Department through diplomatic channels. Under these circumstances this Government will be glad [Page 526] to have the British Government hold up any communications of this nature which are not forwarded through diplomatic channels.

I am [etc.]

For the Secretary of State:
William Phillips
  1. Not printed; telegram No. 7965, Dec. 14, 1917, from the Ambassador, supra, was based upon the despatch.↩