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Naval History and Heritage Command

Raymond B. Stevens, Vice-Chairman, United States Shipping Board and United States Representative, Allied Maritime Transport Council, George Rublee, United States Representative, Allied Maritime Transport Council and Professor J. A. Field, Staff of United States Shipping Board, to George I. Gay, Commissioner, Planning Division

Chronological Copy.                           File No. <42-2-4>

Cablegram Sent 17 Sept 1918, Y-11

To Discom New York                            Serial No. SM 561

Prep. by                   Curtis D.R.

42 ADR                  

Shipmission 561. Gay from Field. General Hines Chief Embarkation Service1 reports hundreds American ships withdrawn from import trades in past month or two and drastic policy of further withdrawal authorized. We have received from you no evidence of such action. Please confirm or explain.2 Stevens Rublee 190617 SM 561

     SIMS.

Source Note: Cy, DNA, RG 45, Entry 517B.

Footnote 1: Maj. Gen. John L. Hines, U.S.A.

Footnote 2: In his memoirs, Edward N. Hurley writes that in September 1918 the United States was forced “to ask the British for one million two hundred thousand (1,200,000) tons of cargo-ships” to support American troops in France. He adds that, despite the hardship this imposed on them, the British agreed to allot the shipping with the provision it would be reduced by 200,000 tons each month. Hurley, The Bridge to France: 124.

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