File No. 763.72112/723
[Enclosure]
The British Secretary of State for Foreign
Affairs (Grey) to
the American Ambassador (Page)
No. 8983/15]
London,
February 1, 1915.
Your Excellency: In the note which you
were so good as to address to me under date of the 4th ultimo
your excellency enquired whether the term “resinous products,”
in the Royal proclamation of December 23 last, Schedule 1, No.
5, was intended to include “rosin” proper and at the same time
you requested to be informed Of the reason for which His
Majesty’s Government had decided to declare these products to be
contraband of war.
I have the honour to make the following statement to your
excellency in reply:
Spirits of turpentine are the raw material of synthetic camphor
which is chemically identical with the natural camphor of
Formosa. Camphor was known before the war to be used in Germany
for the manufacture of certain gunpowders and this has been
proved since by the analysis of the powder in captured German
cartridges. Turpentine is also used in the manufacture of
special shells with luminous flight at night and marked by smoke
in the daytime.
Finally, rosin and colophane can be used for binding shrapnel
bullets together and also in the composition of shells and
incendiary bombs.
The addition of the above articles to the contraband list
necessitated the inclusion of all resinous products as being
their raw material.
[Page 202]
I trust that the above statement will convince your excellency
that His Majesty’s Government have been actuated by important
military considerations in making this addition to their list of
contraband and I can assure you that they much regret any
inconvenience which may be caused thereby to United States
citizens.
I observe that your excellency refers to the unofficial letter
addressed by His Majesty’s Ambassador at Washington to the
Counsellor of the State Department under date of November 1
last, in which his excellency stated that His Majesty’s
Government had at that time no present intention of interfering
with turpentine and rosin, and that your excellency says that
American shippers have relied upon this assurance which has now
been departed from. I feel that I cannot better answer this part
of your excellency’s note than by forwarding to you the enclosed
copy of correspondence on the subject which has passed between
Sir C. Spring Rice
and the United States Secretary of State.1
I have [etc.]
[File copy not signed]
