File No. 763.72116/606
The Swiss Minister ( Sulzer) to the Secretary of State
[Received November 12.]
Sir: I have been instructed by my Government to transmit to Your Excellency the following communication from the German Government:
[Translation]
The Imperial Government has fully and faithfully lived up to the assurances given in the note of October 20 to President Wilson. Orders were then immediately issued to the troops to spare private property and to show every possible consideration to the population of the occupied country.
When on October 27 it was asserted in neutral and Belgian quarters that destruction had begun with the surface plants of the mines near Mons, the Government upon inquiry made of the Army Command received from it on October 29 the declaration that nowhere in Belgium had the destruction of mines begun. It appears that certain arrangements had simply been made to make certain machinery unserviceable for a term of about three months, for the contingency of a continuation of military operations, by putting it out of gear. Indeed, with a view to saving the sand mines from temporary damage, the Imperial Government on October 31 proposed to the Spanish and Dutch Governments to place the mines entirely intact in their custody. The enemy Government’s position with respect to that proposal is not yet known, nevertheless no destruction whatever of Belgian mines has been started up to date. Solf.1
Accept [etc.]
- Wilhelm Solf, German Secretary of State of the Foreign Office.↩