File No. 867.48/698
The Assistant Secretary of State ( Phillips) to the British Ambassador ( Spring Rice)
Dear Mr. Ambassador: Replying to your letter No. 567 of December 3, I may say that we have very carefully considered the whole question of permitting the transmission of relief funds to the subject races of the Ottoman Empire and that within certain limits we believe that such remittances should be allowed. The grounds upon which we have based our policy in this respect seem to us to be sound, not only from the humanitarian point of view but from that of expediency as well. We feel that the material benefit to the Turkish Government is insignificant compared to the moral and political advantage to our own cause which must result from helping these starving races within reasonable limits.
In answer to a recent inquiry from London, we are cabling today a statement of the general policy of our Government covering this question of relief and I am glad to enclose, for your information, a paraphrase of our telegram, which will be brought to the attention of the Foreign Office by the Embassy in London.1
Believe me [etc.]