340.1115A/84a: Telegram
The Secretary of State to the Ambassador in France (Bullitt)34
1124. This Government arranged to dispatch five ships to European ports, the Orizaba, Shawnee, Iroquois, St. John and Acadia. These vessels were certified by the Maritime Commission as safe, seaworthy and proper vessels for the trans-Atlantic run at this season.
This Government has relied on its sources of information which reported the presence of many thousands of its citizens in Europe and [Page 617] on the statements of our officers of the dangers to which those citizens were subjected, of the difficulties which they were encountering, of their desires to return and of the urgency of the situation.
This Government was concerned for the welfare of those citizens and was actuated by a desire to be of assistance to them with the end that additional passenger facilities be provided facilitating departure from a situation in which their lives might be endangered and to return home. It was impelled to take action in the premises even though in undertaking this work it was a question as to whether Government might be exceeding the strict confines of its duty to some of its citizens in Europe. It will be recalled that many of them had no compelling reason for their presence there and that for weeks and even months before the emergency actually arose they were, or should have been, conscious of the possibility that they were unnecessarily risking danger. Nevertheless, under the circumstances now reviewed and because of the reported emergency, the vessels named were dispatched to England and to France at great expense to this Government. These vessels have a combined emergency passenger capacity of 3520, or about twice the emergency capacity of the Manhattan, for instance.
In telegrams to the Department, it has noted statements questioning the suitability of those vessels for the repatriation service in which they are engaged. In reporting on Americans desiring repatriation some of our establishments have stated that there was doubt on the part of some as to the safety of trans-Atlantic travel under present conditions in such a small vessel and that others were reluctant to take passage on small unknown vessels they associate with the coastwise trade and that many people asked to travel on these ships were outspoken in their criticism of what they consider overcrowding. It was also reported that persons desiring repatriation prefer to await the availability of larger vessels but that they would not disdain “even a cot” in one of the public rooms of the Manhattan.
There was no thought that these vessels were luxury liners, and they were not dispatched on a pleasure cruise. They were sent on what we understood was the grim business of getting American citizens out of a war zone and affording them a safe passage to the United States.
In the light of the foregoing we must now consider subsequent developments. The Orizaba brought home from England and Ireland 352 passengers with a maximum capacity of 450. The Shawnee left France with considerably less than 400 American citizens although she had a maximum emergency capacity of 675. The Maritime Commission now reports that the agents of the operators state they are having such difficulty in booking passage for Americans on these vessels that they request authority to book aliens for the United States on the [Page 618] Iroquois, St. John and Acadia. To this we are unable to assent for the reason that these vessels are, and from the beginning were, intended exclusively for American citizens, the extra cost of operation being paid out of funds appropriated by the Congress for the protection in an emergency of American citizens in a foreign country.
The three vessels just named have maximum passenger capacities respectively of 675,869 and 869, or a total of 2395. If they are utilized to their full capacity, the number of Americans remaining in Europe will be decreased by that amount, and the expense to Government for these vessels will be considerably decreased. But if these vessels sail for home with passenger lists as much under their maximum capacities as has been the case with those which have already sailed, the Department will be reluctantly forced to conclude either that the emergency is not as great in the minds of many of our citizens as it has been led to believe, and as it has believed it to be, or that its citizens there desire a degree of luxury which the Department as a steward of the Government’s interests must consider inconsequential as compared with the danger to life. The natural sequence is that there would seem to be substantial basis for the thought that there is no pressing need for this Government to furnish additional special passenger facilities.
Considering the whole matter in the light of our past actions and in the light of circumstances since developed, the Department has come to the conclusion that the time has come to readjust its policy to the situation as it now presents itself.
Consequently, you are advised that the Acadia may be the last vessel to be specially diverted to call at European ports for repatriation services of American citizens and that we shall depend on the regular vessels now engaged in the North Atlantic passenger service under their rapid turn-around for the repatriation of those Americans still remaining in Europe.
The operators of the Acadia are instructed to take as many American citizens as passengers from France as may desire to avail themselves of that ship. If there is a reasonable quantity of accommodations unoccupied after leaving Bordeaux, the vessel is to proceed to an English port to load American passengers there and proceed to New York. If she shall have a load of passengers approximating capacity, she may proceed directly to New York from Bordeaux. The operators have been requested to instruct their agents to keep you advised. Identic telegram to London.
- The same telegram was sent on September 30 to the Ambassador in the United Kingdom as No. 1132.↩