841.61311/-
The Secretary of State to President Wilson
My Dear Mr. President: Lord Reading has cabled the British Embassy that there is a strong movement to bring about the increase of the price paid by the British Government to the British farmer for wheat, and that he had pointed out, at a meeting of the War Cabinet, that the British Government should not take any action in this matter until the views of the United States Government had been obtained. His reason for giving this advice was that he had written you a letter, at the time the bill fixing the price of wheat in this country at $2.50 a bushel was pending in Congress, pointing out that such an increase in the price of wheat in the United States would bear very heavily on the Allies and that you had expressed yourself very strongly to Congress in the matter, stating that this country should not profit in the emergency by the Allies’ need.
Lord Reading stated at the War Cabinet that, in view of your generous action at that time, he did not wish the British Government to increase the price paid the British farmer for wheat without asking this Government for its views.
The British Embassy consulted Mr. Hoover and he, informally, stated that he felt that as wheat is costing Great Britain $2.39 per bushel, delivered at New York, plus ocean transportation, that a rise of twenty or thirty cents a bushel on the price now current in Great Britain would not cause us embarrassment.
Mr. Hoover’s views were cabled to Lord Reading who answered that he desired the views of the United States Government as expressed through the State Department.
My first answer to the British Embassy was that I regarded this matter as purely an internal question and one concerning which this Government would not express any opinion. I have further considered the matter with particular reference to the fact that Lord Reading feels that having urged upon you the desirability from the Allies’ standpoint of not advancing the price of wheat in this country, action by the British Government advancing the price of wheat to its farmers to cover the increased cost of production, would be most ungracious, unless an intimation was received from the United States Government that such action would not embarrass it.
[Page 143]I should appreciate authority from you to advise the British Embassy, informally, that I had submitted the matter to you and that, while you did not wish in any way to be quoted, you did not feel that the proposed action of the British Government would embarrass this Government.
I am told by the British Embassy that this matter is rather urgent.
Faithfully yours,