Paris Peace Conf. 184.01202/75½
Major Lindsay Blayney to the Secretary General of the Commission to Negotiate Peace (Grew)
[Received March 7.]
Sir: The arrival of a courier with mail affords me the opportunity to send you in hurried and very short form our impressions formed after the first days of our trip to western Germany. While I had not expected to make a report until arrival in Paris, I feel that some of the facts set forth briefly below are of such a nature that they should reach your hands at the earliest possible moment.
During the past six days we have visited Cassel and Frankfurt, the two cities representing populations that have heretofore been quiet, the first a typical city of smaller size, the latter one of the largest industrial centers of Germany. I believe from the two that we have already gathered impressions that, even as such, will be of value to you without a detailed report which will be presented later.
The two cities present practically analogous conditions. In Cassel we interviewed some twenty of the leading representatives of industry and of labor of the city. In Frankfurt we have so far been in consultation with some forty citizens representing various branches and in both places visited the important factories and industries.
In a general way the situation may be summed up very briefly, without going into detail or giving statistics, under the following heads:
- 1.
- Food. The ration, most carefully supervised and regulated, already reduced to a point where it was not sufficient to sustain strength or health, has been still more reduced and will have to be reduced yet more in from four to six weeks.
- 2.
- Health. The death rate has been increasing. The unhealthy appearance of both cities is striking. The children are particularly unhealthy and frail in appearance. The authorities universally voiced grave apprehensions in this regard.
- 3.
- Unemployed. In spite of the reduction of working hours to six per day in order to compel employment of more persons in spite of great sacrifices made by employers to endeavor to continue to pay their employees, thousands are unemployed. Only a portion of these [Page 48] receive state assistance, which in a family of four, for example, only amounts to eight marks a day, which at present prices is not sufficient for even the barest necessities.
- 4.
- Fuel. Owing to transport difficulties, and in Frankfurt especially owing to the Rhine blockade and unwillingness of the French to allow fuel and raw materials to pass their bridgehead, a coal famine of serious nature is at hand. Factories which are running only from one-third to one-half of their boilers are unable to secure more than a supply of very inferior lignite sufficient for three or four days in advance.
- 5.
- Raw Materials. Raw materials for textile mills are entirely lacking, they now being engaged practically solely in the manufacture of substitute materials made of paper or paper mixture. The metal industries are entirely or in part idle on account of the Rhine blockade.
- 6.
- Political Situation. All the above considerations contribute to bring about a situation of great nervous tension and gives the authorities the greatest concern. Both authorities and workmen’s representatives assure us that a serious outbreak cannot be averted unless, first of all, the food and fuel situation be relieved very shortly, and, secondly, raw materials be imported at the earliest possible moment afterward as second most important consideration.
- How serious the situation is may be seen from the fact that, at the end of our meeting with some twenty of the leading representatives of industry and labor at the City Hall, the Mayor requested all present to refrain from giving to the public any of the serious sides of the situation as laid before us for fear of precipitating trouble.
I feel that these statements which, on account of the immediate departure of the courier, cannot be accompanied by the statistics and figures which will later be submitted to you, warrant your very earnest consideration. My impression is that the authorities are doing all in their power to avert the inevitable calamity. I also feel that the workmen are showing a most earnest spirit of cooperation in view of the very difficult position in which they find themselves. But I further feel that the best efforts on the part of both parties requires energetic steps on the part of the Allies.
We go from here to Darmstadt and thence to Mannheim, from which point we shall return the end of the week directly to Paris.
Respectfully yours,