File No. 811.0151/108
For convenience of reference, I venture to add that my request for
information was made under the Department’s instruction No. 1585 of
September 13 last.1
The memorandum of February 19 to which reference is made was
communicated to the Department in my telegram No. 1674 of the same
date.2
[Enclosure]
The British Secretary of State for Foreign
Affairs (Grey) to
the American Ambassador (Page)
No. 160683/15]
London,
November 2, 1915.
Your Excellency: In a number of
communications with which your excellency has honoured me in the
past four months you have brought to my notice reports which
have reached the United States Government, from enemy and other
sources, relating to the alleged use of the United States flag
by British vessels in order to escape capture and destruction by
the enemy. Your excellency has requested, under instructions
from your Government, that enquiry might be made in each
instance as to the foundation for the report and that the result
of such enquiry might be communicated to you.
His Majesty’s Government, who desire, in this as in other
matters, to comply so far as is in their power with any desire
expressed to them by the United States Government, have
endeavoured to furnish your excellency with the particulars
required, though they have felt that no useful purpose could be
served by collecting at some trouble the information necessary
to substantiate, or, in many cases, to disprove, the allegation
that British vessels had resorted to a well-known means of
deceiving the enemy, and one which is neither contrary to the
provisions of international law nor to those of the municipal
law of this country, or, I believe, of the United States.
In replying to the enquiry contained in your excellency’s
communication of September 29 last, I would therefore take the
liberty of suggesting that your Government may, on further
consideration of the matter, be willing to desist from bringing
these reports to the notice of His Majesty’s Government or, at
least, from putting forward the request for information by which
they have hitherto been accompanied.
In making this suggestion I would remind your excellency that, in
my memorandum of February 19 last, I stated that His Majesty’s
Government had no intention of advising merchant shipping to use
foreign flags as a general practice, or to resort to them
otherwise than for escaping capture or destruction. At the same
time I recalled to your excellency’s notice that cases were
[Page 619]
on record in which a
corresponding use had been made of the British flag by United
States vessels, and I expressed the view, which I am happy to
say has not been falsified, that it would be contrary to fair
expectation that the United States Government should now, when
the positions are reversed, grudge to British ships liberty to
take similar action.
The case dealt with in your excellency’s above-mentioned
communication of September 29 is that of the steamship Buena Ventura which, according to what is
represented by the German Government, sailed for this country
from American ports in May last under the United States flag.
The enquiries which have been made show that the information of
the German Government may in this case well be correct since the
vessel in question is a United States ship, her British register
having been closed on September 9, 1914, on her sale to the
United States Steel Products Company.
I have [etc.]
For
Sir Edward Grey
:
W. Langley
