File No. 763.72116/632a
The Secretary of State to the Swiss Minister ( Sulzer )
Sir: I have the honor to request that you will bring the following to the attention of the German Government:
In its note of October 201 the German Government announced that “the German troops are under the strictest instructions to spare private property and to exercise care for the population to the best of their ability.”
Information has now reached the Government of the United States to the effect that the German authorities in Belgium have given notice to the coal mining companies that all men and animals should be brought out of the pits, that all raw materials in possession of the companies should be delivered to the Germans, and that the mines will be destroyed at once.
Acts so wanton and malicious, involving as they do the destruction of a vital necessity to the civil population of Belgium and the consequent suffering and loss of human life which will follow, can not fail to impress the Government and people of the United States as wilfully cruel and inhuman. If these acts, in flagrant violation of the [Page 791] declaration of October 20, are perpetrated, it will confirm the belief that the solemn assurances of the German Government are not given in good faith. In the circumstances, the Government of the United States, to which the declaration of October 20 was made, enters an emphatic protest against the measures contemplated by the German authorities for whose conduct the Government of Germany is wholly responsible.
Accept [etc.]