File No. 611.627/158.
[Untitled]
I have failed to obtain a definite proposition for settlement of the potash questions. The Americans have offered to divide equally the [Page 220] difference between their contract prices and those prevailing before the contracts were made. This has not been accepted. There is no prospect therefore of a friendly settlement by taking over and fulfilling the contracts, and I have ended my personal mediation having that in view.
The German Government claims that it has not invalidated the contracts, and says that if it is impossible to execute them it is because the Americans have bound themselves in the contracts to bear the Government charges; and that if they have not done so they are not affected by the potash law. Whether or not they have done so has not yet been legally settled and until it is the German Government refuses to admit that it has done the American contractors any wrong. Under the Bundesrat ruling the Americans must prove their liability to pay the tax as a condition of any exemption. The present status however requires them to pay it whether they legally ought or not, and it is from this requirement that we have sought relief.
For the German Potash Syndicate to do business in the United States is an evident violation of our trust statutes and there is no reason known to me why proceedings should not be begun against the agents of the syndicate.