File No. 840.48/360
The Ambassador in France (Herrick) to the Secretary of State
Paris, August 20, 1914, 11 p.m.
[Received August 21, 7:15 p.m.]
[Telegram]
Referring to the Department’s August 6, 1 p.m.,2 and August 19 [15], 4 [3] p.m., following is substance of French reply to Department’s proposition:
The French Government does not share the view of the American Government that ships chartered for the sole purpose of repatriating American citizens can be considered as neutral according to Article 4 of the Hague convention. By “philanthropic mission” would be understood ships of relief societies, such as the Dutch societies for the relief of fishermen, which would only be protected by the Geneva convention when used for the purpose of transporting wounded or sick soldiers. It would be impossible to consider as belonging to this category of relief societies a merchantman of the [Page 483] enemy, whether transportable [transformable] into a cruiser or not, chartered by a third power to repatriate its nationals. Any further [other] interpretation would provoke the gravest abuses by extending humanitarian character to all passengers asking for protection for any purpose and permitting belligerent ships blockaded in neutral ports to escape capture by the enemy by a subterfuge. The French Government is the first to recognize the need of employing all possible means for repatriating distressed American citizens remaining in Europe. To this end there is no surer or more expeditious method, at the same time conforming to the right of nations, than the employment of neutral Spanish, Italian or Dutch, or of French and English ships, the navigation of which is assured by the command of the sea. Finally the American proposition has lost all practical interest since the French Government engages to transport through France the 4,000 Americans in Switzerland whom the American government proposed to repatriate via Genoa by the German steamers Moltke and König Albert , and is disposed to aid in transporting them across the ocean under its own flag.
Note in full by mail.1