Papers Relating to the Foreign Relations of the United States, The Paris Peace Conference, 1919, Volume II

Colonel E. M. House to the British Ambassador in France ( Derby )³⁹

Paris , 17 December, 1918.

My Dear Lord Derby: Thank you for your memorandum of December 16th with which you enclosed for the information of the President of the United States a copy of a note which you have addressed to the French Government under instructions from your government relative to the mercantile shipping of Germany.

You state that you hope that the President will see fit to instruct the American representative on the Naval Armistice Committee at Wilhelmshaven to press Germany to place her mercantile shipping immediately at the disposal of the Allies for use by them on conditions stated in the enclosed note.

I have conferred with the President of the United States and he has asked me to communicate to you his views respecting this matter.

On December 1st, 1918 I communicated to Mr. Balfour, Baron Sonnino and Monsieur Pichon for the consideration of their respective governments a memorandum containing the President’s views respecting the general question of furnishing relief to the civilian population of European countries affected by the war.⁴⁰ In this memorandum the views of the United States Government with reference to the use of enemy tonnage now in enemy and in neutral ports were presented for the consideration of the governments of Great Britain, France and Italy.

Up to the present time no answer has been received from these governments to this communication, though I have been advised by Mr. Hoover and Mr. Hurley that an informal draft memorandum which dealt with the general subject of the communication of December 1st was submitted to them by the representatives of Great Britain, France and Italy, who had been charged with the consideration of the President’s proposal.⁴¹ The views presented in this draft memorandum were almost directly contrary to the views set forth in my communication of December 1st and they involved the acceptance of principles of action which the President finds himself unable to accept.

The President is in entire sympathy with the desire of the Allies to secure from the enemy governments enemy tonnage now in enemy and in neutral ports and he will gladly give instructions to the United States representatives charged with carrying into effect the Armistice terms to join with their Allied colleagues in a demand that this tonnage be handed over unconditionally to the Allies and the United States. However, he wishes me to point out quite clearly that he is still of the opinion that if this tonnage is secured it should be used pursuant to the suggestions contained in the communication of December 1st, no objection to these suggestions having been communicated to the President by the Allied governments.

The President has requested me to say that his whole purpose in this matter is:—

(1) To utilize the surplus food supply of the United States in relieving existing famine among the civil populations of Europe and in that way to help stem the tide of disorder rapidly sweeping westward.

(2) To utilize enemy tonnage for the transportation of this relief, and as part of this tonnage is not adapted to food carrying, that it should be utilized for transportation home of American troops no longer needed in Europe, the American Government substituting more suitable food tonnage.

(3) To carry on this relief work with the maximum of efficiency under a single leadership chosen from the country whose resources will inevitably have to be drawn on almost exclusively for this work and at the same time to secure to the Allies complete protection of their political interests among the populations of countries to be relieved, which populations must on account of their geographical positions remain the neighbors of the Allies in the years to come.

I beg, my dear Lord Derby, that you will bring these matters promptly to the attention of His Majesty’s government and state that it is the President’s hope that the general question of relief and the use of enemy inactive tonnage may be speedily settled by the Allies and the United States.

I am sending a copy of this note to Monsieur Pichon and to Baron Sonnino.

I am [etc.]

E. M. House

39. Reprinted from Miller, My Diary, vol. ii, p. 306.
40. See letter of Dec. 1, 1918, from Colonel House to Mr. Balfour, p. 646.
41. Memorandum dated Dec. 12, 1918, p. 654.