Part 8 (2/2)

There are a very few English civilians in Germany who have been placed in prison or in prison camps-about 300. The German Government is informed that a great number of German civilian prisoners-over 6,000-are in prison camps in England.

Department is requested by Amba.s.sador, Berlin, to suggest that liberty, so far as possible, be allowed alien enemies detained by war.

_Mr. Page, United States Amba.s.sador in London, to Sir Edward Grey._ (Received Oct. 31.) American Emba.s.sy, London, October 30, 1914.

Sir,-I have the honour to transmit herewith enclosed the attached copy of an open telegram I have received from the Minister at Copenhagen relating to reports on the imprisonment of German subjects in England.

Inasmuch as the Minister at Copenhagen has dispatched this to the Secretary of State at Was.h.i.+ngton, it seems probable that I shall receive definite instructions from him to transmit it to you, but in view of the desirability of an early consideration of the matter I now venture to submit this copy of the telegram for your information.

I have, etc., WALTER HINES PAGE.

Copy of Telegram received October 29, 1914.

Following telegram sent to Department to-day (by the Amba.s.sador at Berlin):

The Foreign Office requests this Emba.s.sy to find out through the American Emba.s.sy in London whether the reports concerning the imprisonment of German subjects in England are well founded.

Unless a reply is received from the British Government before November 5 that all Germans who have not rendered themselves especially suspicious have been released, the German Government will be obliged to take retaliatory measures, and accordingly arrest all male British subjects in Germany between 17 and 55 years. American Minister, Copenhagen.

Copy of Telegram received from Berlin by the American Emba.s.sy, November 3, 1914.

Are Germans over 45 being arrested wholesale in England? If arrests are only of those under 45, I may be able to keep English over that age out of jail. Will not British Government allow all over 45 to leave? That is the legal military age here, and no one over that age can be compelled to serve.

_Sir Edward Grey to Mr. Page, United States Amba.s.sador in London._

Foreign Office, November 9, 1914.

Your Excellency,

I have the honour to acknowledge the receipt of your Excellency's note of the 30th ult., and of subsequent notes informing me of the att.i.tude likely to be adopted by the German Government with regard to the measures that have been taken in this country for the detention of German subjects of military age.

The decision of His Majesty's Government in this respect being clearly irrevocable, the communications which you were good enough to transmit did not appear to call for an immediate reply, although, as your Excellency is aware, the German Government threatened, and have since carried out, reprisals against British subjects in Germany.

At the same time, I hope in due course, when the measures taken here have a.s.sumed a definite form, proper consideration having been given to reasonable claims for exemption as regards particular categories of persons, to address your Excellency further on the subject, with a view of obtaining the release at least of British subjects in Germany who correspond to those categories.

I may state at once that no Germans over the age of 45 are being arrested.[13]

I should, however, be glad if your Excellency would endeavour to bring home to the German Government that His Majesty's Government are faced with a problem which does not apply to the same extent in Germany.

There are, roughly, 50,000 Germans resident in this country, and the presence of such large numbers of the subjects of a country with whom Great Britain is at war must necessarily be a cause of anxiety to the military authorities who are concerned with taking adequate measures for the defence of the realm.[14]

In detaining persons who might, in certain eventualities, become a source of danger to the State, His Majesty's Government are only acting in accordance with the dictates of a legitimate and reasonable policy, and they would be clearly lacking in their duty to the country if they neglected to safeguard its interests by allowing the continuance of possible risks to the public safety.

In proceeding as they have done they have only had this one consideration before them, and it has never once been their intention to indulge in a domestic act of hostility towards German subjects as such, or in any way to inflict hards.h.i.+p for hards.h.i.+p's sake on innocent civilians.

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