763.72119/3052
The British Embassy to the Department of State 17
Memorandum
The Swiss Government has recently received from the Bavarian Government a communication stating that the population of the Palatinate and of Bavaria fear that they may be either interned or deported from their homes for compulsory labour and that they are flying in panic from their homes. The Bavarian representative in Switzerland has made the suggestion that a proclamation of a pacifying nature should be addressed by the Allies to the population of these districts. He suggests that such a step would be very re-assuring and would fortify the authority of the ideas of the Entente among the Germans and act as a deterrent to Bolshevism.
The British Government think it advisable that a statement should be issued by the associated Governments to the effect that there are no grounds for the fear felt by the population, that the associated Powers [Page 38] do not intend to follow the example of the German imperial authorities in France and Belgium, but mean to carry out the conditions of the armistice both in the letter and the spirit.
The British Chargé d’Affaires has been instructed to ask the views of the United States Government as to the desirability of issuing a statement on the lines indicated.
- Text transmitted to Colonel House in Department’s telegram No. 156, Dec. 9, 1918, 6 p.m.↩