Mr. White to Mr. Hay.
Berlin, April 14, 1900.
Sir: For some time past some of the more moderate members of the Agrarian party have been endeavoring to induce the main body of their associates to agree to a compromise with the Imperial Government regarding the meat inspection bill, but apparently with not much chance of success. The argument of the minority in favor of the compromise has been that the Government could not possibly consent to the Agrarian amendments as reported by the committee. The argument of the majority against the compromise has been that the Government would be obliged to consent to the Agrarian amendments in order to secure the votes necessary to pass the bills for the increase of the fleet and other measures which the Emperor and his ministry have deeply at heart.
But all doubt regarding the definite attitude of the Government seems now removed. In the “Norddeutsche Allgemeine Zeitung” for April 12 appeared a leading article of great length, clearly “inspired,” which leaves no doubt on the subject, making it clear that the Government will not consent to the Agrarian project, leading as it does directly to exclusion of foreign meats.
As the article is very long and presents only arguments which during the progress of this extended controversy have become familiar, I wall not burden you with them. The main point is that the attitude of the Government on this question is clearly taken in favor of its original proposal and against the Agrarian amendments.
[Page 506]But in saying that the article presents only arguments with which we are familiar I ought to add that it omits entirely one class of such arguments. For while it speaks at length of the injustice done the industrial interests of Germany by increasing the price of food for the working classes, and indeed by making an adequate supply of such food impossible, it very discreetly says nothing of the possible danger of reprisals likely to affect German industry and commerce. All such considerations which, in the resolutions of so many German chambers of commerce and in the discussions upon the subject by the German press, have occupied a leading place this article ignores and insists simply on the sanitary aspect of the whole question, declaring that all considerations of protection in agricultural industry must be left to later legislation having such protection as its special object.
The article takes pains to show that the original bill, as presented by the Government, while based on sanitary considerations alone, will inure to the benefit of the agricultural interest, and that the wisest course of the Agrarians and their allies is to pass it.
It seems universally understood that this is the ultimatum of the Government in the matter.
As to the relation of this embassy to the subject, of late I have thought it best, while watching carefully the progress of popular feeling and official opinion, to confine my efforts simply to what has been strictly necessary in preventing direct injury to our interests, to carefully shun any exhibition of anxiety, and above all to avoid any appearance of interfering in any internal question of the Empire.
A few days since one of the oldest and most respected members of the diplomatic corps, whose government is especially anxious regarding the amended bill, having interests which would be greatly injured by its passage, called upon me, evidently to find out what line we are taking in the matter. I told him frankly that we are observing at present a waiting policy; that earlier we had taken the greatest pains to give the members of the Imperial Government the fullest information on every point concerned and to show our desire to meet every honest wish for the sanitary protection of the German people by promoting a proper and thorough inspection law for the entire Empire; that we had also done what we could toward the enlightenment of public opinion on the subject, but that now the embassy is confining its efforts within narrow limits, feeling that the German Government must naturally, in the public interest, promote the very same sort of bill which we desire. He then told me that he also had arrived at the conclusion that this was the only mode of procedure at present; that under instructions from his government he had formerly done everything in his power to enlighten the Imperial Government and public opinion; but that he felt that the matter must now be left to take its course until we reach the crisis.
I need hardly say that the embassy will be prompt and ready at any moment to make any point which it shall seem wise to make, as, for example, in my remark during a recent conversation with the Emperor regarding tampering with the great commercial interests between the two countries, and in my sending to Count von Bülow at the foreign office the report regarding German exports to America for the last quarter, furnished me by our consul-general, and calling the minister’s careful attention to the fact that they show an increase in German exports to us of more than 26,000,000 marks over the corresponding [Page 507] period of last year. I especially directed his attention to this in order to impress upon him a due sense of that great and growing commercial interest with which the Agrarians are trifling. It is clear that considerations of foreign commerce, though discreetly avoided in the “inspired” article above referred to, are felt to be the most important of all in regard to this question, by the Emperor, as well as by the imperial chancellor and the secretary of state for foreign affairs.
I am, etc.,