File No. 763.72112/1798
The Secretary of State to the Ambassador in Great Britain (Page)
2406. Your 3098,1 3099. Department greatly disappointed at answer of Foreign Office with respect to goods ordered between March 1 and 15. American importers who acted in good faith before notice of order in council can hardly be convinced it is just to penalize them because it could be considered that something in the nature of a blockade might be thought to be in contemplation by way of retaliation for German submarine activities.
Permits requested for goods ordered before March 1 will total less than twenty-five million dollars. An addition of a million dollars worth of goods ordered between March 1 and 15 would seem small matter compared with effect which the continued refusal to let these goods out will produce here.
You will recur to this matter informally and present these arguments and request that serious consideration be given them, and point out that English public opinion ought to be satisfied with the assurances given by Sir Edward Grey and Lord Robert Cecil to the Parliament. The principle so announced applies with equal force to goods purchased before March 15. The protest of American public sentiment, which is sure to come against the application of the order in council to American importers before it was communicated to them or their Government, seems to the Department to be based on the plainest principles of equity and justice, and you will not fail to make our views on this subject equally plain.
- Not printed.↩