340.1115A/59: Telegram
The Ambassador in the United Kingdom (Kennedy) to the Secretary of State
1830. We have just been informed by the United States Lines that the Iroquois and the Acadia which we understood were scheduled to go to France, instead will be put into United Kingdom ports. We are naturally glad to get these ships but I think that I should point out some of the difficulties with which we are going to be confronted in filling them. In the first place, we find travelers extremely reluctant to take passage on small, unknown vessels which they associate with the coastwise trade. We have plenty of people who are still waiting for accommodations to the United States but they will not book on a 6,000-ton boat until they are scared to death. Being scared half to death apparently is not sufficient incentive to get people onto a boat which they consider to be uncomfortable and perhaps unsafe. We are going to try very hard to fill these ships, and I believe that we shall, but I want to call your attention to two possibilities which we might fall back upon in case of need. One is to reduce the price; the other is to take Latin Americans in cases where this will not deprive citizens of an opportunity to get home. The price angle becomes increasingly important. People who can afford to book the more expensive accommodations are pretty well out of the way. (Those who are not out of the way are not interested in vessels like the Iroquois.) Many of those who now remain are limited to third and tourist class fares, arid the longer they remain the worse off they become. If we are unable to get the fares that have been set for the Iroquois and Acadia I believe that it would be wise to consider a drastic reduction for those who are unable to pay the present rate and might easily cost the Government much more if they are not taken out right away. We have nearly 100 Latin Americans who have registered at the Embassy for assistance in securing passage home. The majority of these people can pay the Iroquois and Acadia rates. In view of our good neighbor policy, and in further view of your instructions to help Latin Americans [Page 614] whenever we can, would it not be wise to let them have any accommodations that may not be taken by Americans? It certainly would be much better, from every standpoint, to carry these people than to let the ships return with empty berths. This applies, with even greater force, to alien members of families in which there are American citizens. In this connection, I must reiterate what I said in my 1668 cable of September 15, that some of these ships will not carry the numbers set forth in the Department’s 960, September 14.33a Thus the Orizaba which was listed as having a capacity of 450, was considered by local officials of the United States Lines and by Consul General Erhardt to be comfortably filled when she had taken on 352 passengers. The Iroquois apparently will carry about 675, as scheduled, but we are informed that the 860 listed for the Acadia is 200 more than can practicably be accommodated on this vessel. Many of the people asked to travel on these ships are outspoken in their criticism of what they consider overcrowding and in their determination to risk bombing rather than a late season crossing of the north Atlantic in a crowded small vessel.