Telegram with a Translation of the Zimmermann Telegram
2/24/1917
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U.S. Ambassador Walter Page sent this telegram to President Woodrow Wilson conveying a translation of the Zimmermann Telegram. In January 1917, the United States was neutral in the European war that would eventually be called World War I. The Zimmermann Telegram would be the catalyst to change everything.
German Foreign Minister Arthur Zimmermann sent an encoded message to the President of Mexico, in which plans to begin unrestricted submarine warfare were revealed and an alliance with Mexico was proposed, on January 16, 1917. British intelligence intercepted the telegram and deciphered it. After deciphering the message, the British Government passed its contents on to the American Government. The British ambassador expressed that the British Government would like the method in which the telegram was intercepted to be kept secret, but it has no restriction on making the telegram public.
The decoded message that Germany sent to Mexico reads:
German Foreign Minister Arthur Zimmermann sent an encoded message to the President of Mexico, in which plans to begin unrestricted submarine warfare were revealed and an alliance with Mexico was proposed, on January 16, 1917. British intelligence intercepted the telegram and deciphered it. After deciphering the message, the British Government passed its contents on to the American Government. The British ambassador expressed that the British Government would like the method in which the telegram was intercepted to be kept secret, but it has no restriction on making the telegram public.
The decoded message that Germany sent to Mexico reads:
FROM 2nd from London # 5747.
We intend to begin on the first of February unrestricted submarine warfare. We shall endeavor in spite of this to keep the United States of America neutral. In the event of this not succeeding, we make Mexico a proposal or alliance on the following basis: make war together, make peace together, generous financial support and an understanding on our part that Mexico is to reconquer the lost territory in Texas, New Mexico, and Arizona. The settlement in detail is left to you. You will inform the President of the above most secretly as soon as the outbreak of war with the United States of America is certain and add the suggestion that he should, on his own initiative, invite Japan to immediate adherence and at the same time mediate between Japan and ourselves. Please call the President's attention to the fact that the ruthless employment of our submarines now offers the prospect of compelling England in a few months to make peace.
Signed, ZIMMERMANN
Transcript
[handwritten in upper left corner] [OK]TELEGRAM RECEIVED. SPECIAL GREEN.
[handwritten on right] file
[stamp] CLASSIFICATION CANCELED
Authority: letter 1-8-58
W. H. Anderson, State Dept.
By [handwritten] Mark G Eckhoff, Archivist
Date [handwritten] Oct 27, 1958
[red stamp] INDEX BUREAU FEB 26 1917 DEPT OF STATE
FROM London,
Dated Feb. 24, 1917,
Rec'd 8:30 p. m.
[red stamp] COUNSELOR FEB 26 1917 DEPARTMENT OF STATE
[red stamp] INDEX BUREAU [handwritten] 862.2.0212/69
[handwritten in pencil] To London Feb 27, 1917 + +
Secretary of State,
Washington.
5747, February 24, 1 p. m.
My fifty-seven forty-six, [insert, handwritten in pencil: 763.72119/8268] February 24, 8 a. m.
[crossed out: CONFIDENTIAL] FOR THE PRESIDENT AND THE SECRETARY OF STATE.
Balfour has handed me the text of a cipher telegram from Zimmerman, German Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, to the German Minister to Mexico, which was sent via Washington and relayed by Bernstorff on January nineteenth. You can probably obtain a copy of the text relayed by Bernstorff from the cable office in Washington. The first group is the number of the telegram, one hundred and thirty, and second is thirteen thousand and forty-two, indicating the number of
the code used. The last group but two is ninety-seven thousand five hundred and fifty-six, which is Zimmermann's signature. I shall send you by mail a copy of the cipher text and of the de-code into [underlined and check mark] German and meanwhile I give you the English translation as follows:
"We
[red stamp in right margin] FILED APR 14 192[illegible]
TELEGRAM RECEIVED.
FROM 2nd from London # 5747.
[stamp] CLASSIFICATION CANCELED
Authority: letter 1-8-58
W. H. Anderson, State Dept.
By [handwritten] Mark G Eckhoff, Archivist
Date [handwritten] Oct 27, 1958
"We intend to begin on the first of February unrestricted submarine warfare. We shall endeavor in spite of this to keep the United States of America neutral. In the event of this not succeeding, we make Mexico a proposal or alliance on the following basis: make war together, make peace together, generous financial support and an understanding on our part that Mexico is to reconquer the lost territory in Texas, New Mexico, and Arizona. The settlement in detail is left to you. You will inform the President of the above most secretly as soon as the outbreak of war with the United States of America is certain and add the suggestion that he should, on his own initiative, invite Japan to immediate adherence and at the same time mediate between Japan and ourselves. Please call the President's attention to the fact that the ruthless employment of our submarines now offers the prospect of compelling England in a few months to make peace." Signed, ZIMMERMANN.
The receipt of this information has so greatly exercised the British Government that they have lost no time in communicating it to me to transmit to you, in order that our Government may be able without delay to make such disposition as may
Authority: letter 1-8-58
W. H. Anderson, State Dept.
By [handwritten] Mark G Eckhoff, Archivist
Date [handwritten] Oct 27, 1958
"We intend to begin on the first of February unrestricted submarine warfare. We shall endeavor in spite of this to keep the United States of America neutral. In the event of this not succeeding, we make Mexico a proposal or alliance on the following basis: make war together, make peace together, generous financial support and an understanding on our part that Mexico is to reconquer the lost territory in Texas, New Mexico, and Arizona. The settlement in detail is left to you. You will inform the President of the above most secretly as soon as the outbreak of war with the United States of America is certain and add the suggestion that he should, on his own initiative, invite Japan to immediate adherence and at the same time mediate between Japan and ourselves. Please call the President's attention to the fact that the ruthless employment of our submarines now offers the prospect of compelling England in a few months to make peace." Signed, ZIMMERMANN.
The receipt of this information has so greatly exercised the British Government that they have lost no time in communicating it to me to transmit to you, in order that our Government may be able without delay to make such disposition as may
TELEGRAM RECEIVED.
FROM 3rd from London # 5747
[stamp] CLASSIFICATION CANCELED
Authority: letter 1-8-58
W. H. Anderson, State Dept.
By [handwritten] Mark G Eckhoff, Archivist
Date [handwritten] Oct 27, 1958
may be necessary in view of the threatened invasion
of our territory.
[crossed out: The following paragraph is strictly confidential.]
Early in the war, the British Government obtained possession of a copy of the German cipher code used in the above message and have made it their business to obtain copies of Bernstorff'e cipher telegrams to
Mexico, amongst other, which are sent back to London and deciphered here. This accounts for their being able to decipher this telegram from
the German Government to their representative in Mexico and also for the delay from [underlined in pencil] January nineteenth until now in their receiving the information. This system has hitherto been a jealously guarded secret and is only divulged now to you by the British Government in view of the extraordinary circumstances and their friendly feeling towards the United States. They earnestly request that you will keep the source of your information and the British Government's method of obtaining it profoundly secret but they put no prohibition on the publication of Zimmermann's telegram itself. [check mark]
The copies of this and other telegrams were not obtained in Washington but were [underlined in pencil] bought in Mexico.
I
TELEGRAM RECEIVED
From 4th from London #5747.
I have thanked Balfour for the service his Government has rendered us and suggest that a private official message of thanks from our Government to him would be beneficial.
[in pencil in left margin: approved [illegible] 27th [initials]]
I am informed that this information has not yet been given to the Japanese Government but I think it not unlikely that when it reaches them they may make a public statement on it in order to clear up their position regarding the United States and prove their good faith to their allies.
P A G E.
[stamp] CLASSIFICATION CANCELED
Authority: letter 1-8-58
W. H. Anderson, State Dept.
By [handwritten] Mark G. Eckhoff, Archivist
Date [handwritten] Oct. 27, 1958
I am informed that this information has not yet been given to the Japanese Government but I think it not unlikely that when it reaches them they may make a public statement on it in order to clear up their position regarding the United States and prove their good faith to their allies.
P A G E.
[stamp] CLASSIFICATION CANCELED
Authority: letter 1-8-58
W. H. Anderson, State Dept.
By [handwritten] Mark G. Eckhoff, Archivist
Date [handwritten] Oct. 27, 1958
This primary source comes from the General Records of the Department of State.
National Archives Identifier: 302022
Full Citation: Telegram from United States Ambassador Walter Page to President Woodrow Wilson Conveying a Translation of the Zimmermann Telegram; 2/24/1917; 862.20212 / 57 through 862.20212 / 311; Central Decimal Files, 1910 - 1963; General Records of the Department of State, Record Group 59; National Archives at College Park, College Park, MD. [Online Version, https://docsteach.org/documents/document/translation-zimmermann-telegram, June 26, 2022]Activities that use this document
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