851.48/504: Telegram
The Ambassador in the United Kingdom (Winant) to the Secretary of State
[Received October 29—8:06 a.m.]
5137. Your 4696, October 24, midnight. We discussed the question of the Red Cross ship clearing at Gibraltar with the parliamentary secretary of the Ministry of Economic Warfare and strongly pressed the view that this condition should be waived. After consulting the highest officials of the Ministry he has sent the following reply:
“We attach considerable importance to this. As I told you yesterday we have had to insert [insist?] that vessels which are chartered by the International Red Cross and which sail from Lisbon to Marseille with supplies for prisoners of war should call at Gibraltar. While we have [Page 195] of course no reason to distrust the International Red Cross authorities at Lisbon there is always the possibility that unknown to them some attempt will be made to smuggle contraband on one of these ships. It is, therefore, necessary that we should insist on the call at Gibraltar in order that the vessel may be searched if we have any reason to be suspicious. We have been strongly pressed to dispense with this safeguard but on inquiry we could find no reason for this request except that the Germans and Italians objected to the call. Naturally this did not predispose us to give way and we felt obliged to maintain our position.
“I do not see how we can draw a distinction between one Red Cross ship and annuals [another?].
“I should like to emphasize that no practical inconvenience is likely to result from the call at Gibraltar since the inspection is as a rule only formal and the average delay involved in the case of a Red Cross ship is less than 3 hours. We feel that it is highly desirable to maintain the principle in all cases and we do not, therefore, see our way to waive this condition.”
Today I spoke to Mr. Eden about the publicity referred to in the last paragraph of your telegram. He had no knowledge of the publicity described. Before going to see him I had a thorough search made of the papers here. We were unable to find any references to the proposed shipments of Red Cross supplies in any English paper nor have we been able to find such references in American papers so far received.
Mr. Eden told me he would check with other departments and ask newspapers to refrain from making any unfriendly references to these Red Cross shipments.