File No. 611.627/473.
The Commercial Adviser of the Department to the Secretary of State.
[Washington], May 11, 1911.
Acting on the instructions of Assistant Secretary Wilson, this morning I called the German Embassy by telephone, and was informed that * * * the ambassador would talk with me. This [Page 239] the ambassador proceeded to do, stating that he was in receipt of a cable from his Government asking whether this Government would agree to the parties interested meeting in Berlin for the conference, instead of Brussels. The ambassador stated that the American parties were now in Berlin, and that it would be a matter of convenience to all concerned if the conference were held in that city. I said that if all the American parties were present and agreed to the conference in Berlin, this Government had no objection to the conference being held there. I was particular to state that it was the desire of this Government that all the American parties be present at the conference and that this expression of agreement was contingent upon all the interested Americans being present. The ambassador said that his understanding was that they were all present-in Berlin. My authority for agreeing to a conference in Berlin was given to me by Assistant Secretary Wilson by telephone to-day, Mr. Wilson having stated explicitly that this Government would offer no objection to the suggested change in date and place of the conference, providing all the American representatives were present and agreeable to the suggestion.
Note.—The conversation by telephone between Mr. Davis and the German ambassador, reported in the foregoing memorandum, is the last communication between the two Governments on the subject of the potash contracts. The following memoranda by Mr. Davis report subsequent unofficial statements of the result of the conferences. It was held at Hamburg in June instead of Berlin in May, as above indicated.