File No. 840.48/334
The Ambassador in Great Britain (Page) to the Secretary of State
London, August 18, 1914, midnight.
[Received August 19, 7 a.m.]
[Telegram]
404. Your August 6, 1 [7] p.m.,1 and August 15, 8 p.m. Sir Edward Grey informs me that the Declaration of London forbids [Page 482] the sale in a neutral port of a ship belonging to a subject of a belligerent and the use of that ship under a neutral flag to escape the consequences of its original belligerent ownership. This would apparently forbid the purchase by Americans of the German liners now in American ports and their use under cover of American flag.
Sir Edward Grey saw no objection to the use under a definite understanding of these German ships for a trip across the Atlantic only to take stranded Americans home, if they can fly the American flag, be commanded by American officers, and will be guaranteed by our Government to return to the place and condition in which they now are.