Woodrow Wilson to William Sowden Sims

FOR ADMIRAL SIMS,
Confidential from the President:
From the beginning of the war I have been surprised by nothing so much as the failure of the British Admiralty to use Great Britain's great naval superiority in any effective way. In the presence of the present submarine emergency they are helpless to the point of panic. Every plan we suggest they reject for some reason of prudence. In my view this is not a time for prudence but for boldness even at the risk of great losses. In most of your despatches you have very properly advised us of the sort of aid and cooperation desired from us by the Admiralty. The trouble is that their plans and methods do not seem to us effective. I would be very much obliged to you if you would report to me, confidentially of course, exactly what the Admiralty have been doing and what they have accomplished and add to the report your own comments and suggestions based upon independent study of the whole situation without regard to the judgments already arrived at on that side of the water. [In particular I am not at all satisfied with the conclusions of the Admiralty with regard to the convoying of groups of merchantmen. I do not see how the necessary military supplies and supplies of food and fuel oil are to be delivered at British ports in any other way than under L convoy. There will presently not be ships enough or tankers enough and our shipbuilding plans may not begin to yield important results in less than eighteen months.] I beg that you will keep these instructions absolutely to yourself and that you will give me such advice as you would give if you were handling an independent navy of your own.

Woodrow Wilson.