Walter Hines Page to Robert Lansing

London, Dated October 3, 1917.

Recd 4th, 4.10 a.M.
Secretary of State,
Washington.7318. October 3, 4 p.M.

I have received from Mr. Balfour a personal letter which I telegraph in full as follows with request for instructions. The inclosures which are voluminous go forward by pouch. The Mr. Keen mentioned is E L Keen, London representative of the United Press.

The Foreign Office has several times previously taken up similar matters regarding the United Press informally with the Embassy and Mr P H Patchin has personal letters of July eleventh, August twenty-third and September fifth on this subject."My attention has been called by the Department of His Majesty's Government concerned to certain arrangements which American newspapers and agencies have made since the United States entered the war for maintaining their journalistic relations with Berlin.

Attempts to maintain communication with Germany are not confined to anyone American newspaper or news agency but I should like to call your attention as an instance to the activities of one such agency the results of which may be calculated to have a prejudicial effect.

It has come to our knowledge that since the entrance of the United States into the war the United Press has communicated frequently by letter and by telegram with a certain J Graudenz who is a German subject and who acts as the correspondent of the United Press in Berlin. The intermediary for this correspondence is J Bruna of the NIEUWE COURANT at The Hague. It may be well to give some instances of this correspondence.

One. In a letter to the President of the United Press from Graudenz a copy of which was sent to Mr. Keen by the latter on the tenth May, he first outlined methods by which our Allies might be induced to make a separate peace and continued. 'If then England still wants to have it out all for herself Germany is able to post all her submarines, which may soon be a thousand, around the English coasts, especially on the Atlantic side, to catch what ships America sends over and then it would not take much longer than three, four months.' I transmit to you further extracts from this letter.

Two. On the eighteenth of June Gruadenz sent to Mr. Keen four articles The first of these described Hindenburg as the Wilson'savior of Germany' and his retreat as a Wilson'strategical master piece' through which the Entente offiensive was fore doomed to failure. The second was an eulogy to the world of German submarines. The third described the food supply to the German population as secured and the fourth claimed that Prussian militarism had been adopted by the western democratic powers.

Three. In a letter dated the twenty-third of June to Mr. Keen the President of the United Press forwarded a duplicate of a letter which he had written to Gruadenz a copy of which I enclose. Mr. Roy Howard invited Graudenz to write as often as possible 'letters relative to conditions and the popular point of view in Berlin'Four. On the nineteenth JuneMr. Keen filed for transmission to Buenos Aires the comments upon peace program of the German socialists which he had received through Graudenz and which appear calculated to serve the purposes of German propaganda. A copy of this telegram is transmitted herewith.

Five. On the third instant Mr. Keen addressed to Graudenz a letter of which I transmit a copy inviting him to obtain from Erzberger and Solf interviews on German colonial policy.

Six. On the 9th instant VORWAERTS published an interview granted by Scheideman to the representative of the United Press who may be presumed to have been Graudenz.

The Director of the Press Bureau recently drew the attention of Mr. Keen to the propagandist flavor of the messages which were being sent by Graudenz. In replying Mr. Keen admitted frankly that Graudenz was a native born German and that since the United States entered the war he has been looking after the news interests of the United Press in German.

I have though it desirable to bring these several communications passing between representatives of the United Press in London and Berlin to your notice on account of their strong propagandist tendency but we are aware that other American news agencies and newspapers endeavor to conduct similar correspondence.

In the opinion of His Majesty's Government such conduct is violation of the law of the United Kingdom. Any attempt by a British journalist to carry on such a correspondence would quickly involve him in legal proceedings and American correspondents in London are no less liable to prosecution.

Apart from the legal aspect of the matter and apart from the unfair differentiation against British news agencies which would result if such correspondence between American news agencies and Berlin by means of British postal and cable facilities were permitted to continue it seems to His Majesty's Government that the opportunity thereby opened to the German Government for circulating the views which Germany desires to become current throughout the world is prejudicial to the successful prosecution of the war and goes far to render ineffectual the various steps which have been taken to prevent the dissemination of German propaganda. In view of these considerations we feel disposed to prevent for the future all communication between American newspapers and news agencies and enemy countries so far as such communication involves the use of British postal and cable facilities but before taking such action I should be glad to know the views of the United States Government
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