File No. 763.72112/1453
The Ambassador in Great Britain (Page) to the Secretary of State
No. 1872]
London,
July 26, 1915.
[Received August 9.]
Sir: I have the honor to acknowledge the
receipt of the Department’s instructions No. 1122 of June 15 quoting
cables from the Minister at The Hague regarding shipments of tobacco
from the Dutch East Indies to Holland and instructing me to bring
the Matter to the attention of the British Government to the effect
that it would appear that tobacco from the Dutch colonies was given
more favorable treatment than tobacco from the United States.
In reply I beg to enclose herewith to the Department, a copy of a
note which I have received from Sir
Edward Grey in reply to my informal representations
in the premises, in which the position of the British Government is
defined.
I have [etc.]
[Enclosure]
The British Secretary of State for Foreign
Affairs (Grey) to
the American Ambassador (Page)
No. 91082/15]
London,
July 24, 1915.
Your Excellency: I have had under my
consideration the aide-mémoire which your
excellency was so good as to communicate to me on the 7th
instant, relative to the importation of tobacco into the
Netherlands from the Dutch East Indies.
I have the honour to inform your excellency in reply that the
understanding whereby His Majesty’s Government allow certain
articles of Dutch colonial produce to pass to the mother
country, without insisting on their consignment to the
Netherlands Oversea Trust, is part of a general arrangement
concluded between His Majesty’s Government and that body. His
Majesty’s Government by not insisting upon a restriction as to
the disposal of such Dutch colonial produce have made a
concession to Dutch trade in return for the advantages obtained
from the guarantees and safeguards provided by the Netherlands
Oversea Trust.
I venture to point out that consignment to the trust avoids delay
and interference with cargoes and that as tobacco from British
colonies and from the United Kingdom must be consigned to the
trust, British and American exporters of tobacco are placed in
exactly the same position, so far as export to Holland is
concerned.
I would add that His Majesty’s Government do not consider the
arrangements they have concluded with the trust as involving in
any sense an act of discrimination and they would be happy to
grant American traders similar facilities in return for a
consideration of equal value to that given by the Netherlands
Oversea Trust.
I have [etc.]
[File copy not signed]
