File No. 763.72114/3294
The Ambassador in Great Britain ( Page) to the Secretary of State
[Received February 14, 11 p.m.]
8672. Referring your mail instructions No. 5630, January 5, 1918, regarding remittances to enemy and enemy-occupied territory. The Foreign Office, in order to coordinate as far as possible the procedure adopted by the two countries, desires to know in fullest detail the principles by which the War Trade Board intend to be guided in authorizing the transmission of funds to enemy and enemy-occupied territory or to territory in the possession or occupation of an ally of an enemy of the United States.
The Foreign Office would appreciate being furnished from time to time, for the guidance of British licensing and censorship authorities, with complete lists of amounts sent, persons to whom they are payable, and the channels through which they are to be distributed. The Foreign Office presumes that the decision that correspondence covering these remittances will from now on be transmitted through diplomatic channels, means that the documents will be forwarded to representatives of our Government abroad and not handed for transmission to representatives of neutral countries charged with enemy interests in America.1
- Note on file copy of this telegram states: “Not to be answered. W[illiam] P[hillips].”↩