Office of the Historian

File No. 763.72/101

The Chargé d’Affaires in Italy (Jay) to the Secretary of State

American Embassy,
Rome, August 3, 1914.
[Received August 4, 9 a.m.]

[Telegram]

Decree relative to exportation foodstuffs and other necessities now promulgated. Two classes, roughly 200,000, called to colors August 8, but this not considered as mobilization. Naval attaché reports Italian fleet at Gaeta and Taranto previously arranged for maneuvers, also that Navy has one million lira available for munitions of war and are [doing?] utmost to secure same.

Owing to strict censorship of and interruption telegraphic communication little outside news obtainable in Italy.

Jay