File No. 763.72/1072
The Minister in Belgium (Whitlock) to the Secretary of State
Brussels, October 10, 1914.
[Received 4:50 p.m.]
[Telegram]
41. This morning Baron von der Lancken and Colonel von Leipzig of the German military authorities informed my. Spanish colleague and me that the bombardment of Antwerp was imminent and that in conformity with Article 26 of the Hague convention they wished to notify the local authorities at Antwerp of their intention. They said that parlementaires had been unsuccessful in their efforts to reach Antwerp, that they had no means of communicating with the local authorities than through us and therefore asked us to convey the message. The idea of doing this was naturally repugnant and we refused. Thereupon the German military authorities said they had exhausted all their means of apprising the local authorities of the situation and asserted that the responsibility for the result would be on us. While we could not of course accept this view as to the [Page 804] result, we thought that under the circumstances the time being too short to communicate with our respective Governments, it was at least due to the non-combatants at Antwerp that the information be given them. The Spanish Minister thereupon detailed his naval attaché to go to Antwerp and lay the facts before the local authorities without comment or suggestion. This was done by the naval attaché this afternoon and for his services he was thanked by the local authorities at Antwerp.
I took advantage of his going to convey to the Belgian Government the fact that I had communicated to the German military authorities your No. 24, Berlin, 5th,1 and told him to bring back list of buildings. He found that Gibson was already on the way with the list and German authorities have been furnished with it.
- Not printed.↩