File No. 611.627/373.
The Acting Secretary of State to the German Ambassador.
Washington, March 17, 1911.
Excellency: Under date of February 11, 1911, I had the honor to request that no collection of excess-production taxes be made by the Imperial German Government from the Sollstedt potash mine, owned by the International Agricultural Corporation of New York, pending present negotiations looking to a settlement of the potash case.
[Page 234]I now have the honor to call to the attention of your excellency a statement from the said corporation to the effect that it is in receipt of a cable from its Sollstedt management advising that while the Imperial German Government appears willing to hold in abeyance the matter of the payment of taxes heretofore assessed, it will do so only upon condition that the mine furnish an acceptable bank guarantee of payment.
It is represented to the Department that all the assets of the Sollstedt mine and the International Agricultural Corporation are in Germany, and that they amply protect the obligation of the corporation. This being the case the said corporation does not understand why it should be required to provide any additional guarantee to meet its obligations in this transaction.
In the light of your Government’s expressed willingness to facilitate an early settlement of the questions under negotiation, and since the obligation laid upon the International Agricultural Corporation essentially enters into the present case, I am constrained to request your excellency to be kind enough to obtain, by cable, a reconsideration of this requirement, with a view to withholding further action for the present in order that no new element of discord may at this stage be permitted to embarrass an early adjustment of the entire question.
Accept, etc.,