711.5914/53½
The Secretary of State to
President Wilson
Washington,
December 28, 1915
.
My Dear Mr. President: I enclose for your
information a memorandum of an interview which I had yesterday with the
Danish Minister. My own belief is that Denmark will come to the figure
of $20,000,000 and that it will be possible to negotiate a treaty of
cession with that amount as a consideration. I will advise you in case I
hear further from the Danish Minister or from Mr. Egan.
Faithfully yours,
[Enclosure]
Memorandum by the Secretary of State of an
Interview With the Danish Minister (Brun), December 27, 1915
The Danish Minister called on me this afternoon and stated that he
had received word from his Government that they had made an offer to
negotiate for the sale of the Danish West Indies on the basis of a
hundred million kroner which, the Minister said, equal $27,000,000.
I told Mr. Brun that this Government would consider such an amount
too great a consideration for the Islands—that we were not good
bargainers, and when I suggested that $20,000,000 might form a basis
for negotiation I had stated the maximum sum which this Government
was willing to consider—that he must understand, being here in
America, the difficulties at the present time which the Government
was having in raising sufficient funds for carrying out a policy of
preparedness and that he must know that any such sum as $27,000,000
would, in all probability, be disapproved by Congress; that I hoped,
therefore, he would explain this fully to his Government and I
thought when they understood the situation they would be willing to
modify their figures.
The Minister also spoke to me about the desire of his Government to
obtain from this Government an agreement by protocol that it would
not object to the extension of Danish occupation of Greenland. I
told him that the Danish West Indies and Greenland should be
combined in one negotiation; that Denmark had something which we
desired, and that evidently we had something which Denmark desired;
that it seemed to me it would be possibly the most advisable way to
incorporate the two subjects in one treaty rather than to
[Page 506]
have a treaty of cession
of the Danish West Indies and a protocol relating to Greenland. The
Minister said he had no objection to adopting this course.
He also left with me a memorandum relative to Greenland7 which embodied instructions
which he had received from his Government.
The Minister left with the understanding that he would communicate
fully to his Government the views which had been expressed by
me.
