340.1115/493: Telegram

The Secretary of State to the Ambassador in the United Kingdom (Kennedy)16

775. We have given most earnest consideration to your appeals for making available additional ships for repatriation purposes. Again today the appropriate agencies of our Government have been in constant collaboration on this problem with this Department and in consultation with the President.

We hope to be able to advise you tomorrow of the names and dates of sailing of three or four additional vessels it is planned to place in this service under private operation.

In the meantime we want to call your attention again to the advantages, as we see it, of your continuing to impress upon Americans the urgency of leaving the more dangerous urban centers for points of greater security. It is understood that you will, of course, have the addresses to which Americans have gone and that you will notify them as shipping space becomes available. Please impress upon them that with the best will in the world the obtaining of available space will take time and that they should put themselves in positions of safety when they are obliged to wait.

One further matter. Would it not be possible to appeal to Americans who have bought accommodations more than adequate for themselves to waive their rights so as to utilize every berth and accommodate three or four passengers per cabin instead of one couple. A better utilization of space could be accomplished this way.

Hull
  1. The same telegram was sent on September 3 to the Ambassador in France as No. 731.