File No. 763.72112/337
The Ambassador in Great Britain (Page) to the Secretary of State
London, November 9, 1914.
[Received 11:30 p.m.]
[Telegram]
1029. Sir Edward Grey has given me the following written statement which I transmit entire:
In view of the articles now appearing in the American press on the subject of the restrictions enforced by the Allied Governments on the contraband trade in copper, the following facts deserve consideration:
Electrolytic copper is used mainly for the manufacture of ammunition and other warlike implements. There is now a great scarcity of such copper in Germany with the result that the most persevering efforts are being made by German agents and commercial houses working in conjunction with German capitalists to get copper into Germany, by some means or other regardless of cost.
The principal channel chosen for this contraband traffic at present is Italy. Statistics just published give the imports of copper into Genoa for the two and a half months from August 1 to October 19 as 1,316 tons. Since the 25th of October vessels have been diverted to Gibraltar with no less than 7,700 tons of copper on board and several thousand tons are in addition now on the way from New York. This represents nearly 8,000 tons in ten days, of which the largest part is destined for Genoa. These figures point to but one conclusion:
The present swollen trade is an entirely artificial one and does not represent bona fide imports into Italy. This is fully confirmed by other information. Some of the shipments seized at Gibraltar were actually found packed in cases marked for Danzig; other parcels are shipments made on orders placed [Page 343] by firms and agents to Amsterdam and Rotterdam. It is obvious that such shipments, if they were intended to meet genuine Dutch requirements, would not be expressly directed to take the route via Genoa. Moreover, the firms in question are not Dutch but German houses, some of them being actually connected with Krupp.
It may also be stated that representatives of some of the big American copper-refining firms have recently sailed from New York for Europe by arrangement with the representatives of German firms with the object of consulting together as to the best means of introducing copper into Germany, notwithstanding its contraband character; and private houses in Italy have also been approached by purchasers of copper in Germany with the view of their lending their names for the purpose of disguising the destination of American copper shipments. Furthermore, it is known that, in view of the financial situation in Germany, the orders are not usually executed in America except on payment in cash before shipment, and that such payments are made by certain prominent firms of bankers in New York on German account. If, nevertheless, the cargoes are in many cases accompanied by bills of lading showing an American owner, there is good ground for believing that these papers do not genuinely represent the actual ownership but merely form part of the general scheme devised to conceal the real nature of the transaction.
It is clear that what the Allied Governments have to deal with is a carefully organized plan on the part of German agents and their coadjutors in America to supply the German arms factories systematically with copper. To facilitate these operations it is sought to create an artificial and entirely unjustified agitation in the American press for the purpose of stirring up feeling against the Allied Governments on account, of the measures which they are not merely justified but bound to take to put a stop to an illicit and unnatural traffic which, if successfully carried on, would be of the utmost assistance to their enemies in prolonging the war. The attempts to stir up American feeling in this matter is all the more regrettable as even in the rare cases where shipments may have been genuinely and innocently made by American citizens before October 29, when copper was transferred from the list of conditional to that of absolute contraband, the Allied Governments have intimated their readiness to meet any bona fide neutral grievance by purchasing the copper removed from neutral ships at a reasonable price.