File No. 763.72/1618
The Ambassador in Germany (Gerard) to the Secretary of State
[Received March 22, 5 p. m.]
1885. Your 1382 giving English note received.1 Respectfully suggest that if administration is attacked for failing to go to war with England in order to force English blockade of Germany you can answer that Germany has placed an embargo on so many goods which America needs and has so discriminated against American goods that it hardly seems worth while to go to war to keep up trade relations with a country that does not seem to wish to trade with us. Note absolute embargo on potash, carbolic acid, manganese hydrate, medical oil, machinery, chemicals, surgical instruments, and probably five hundred other articles set forth in pamphlets already sent you or on way. Only dyestuffs for a month at a time allowed out Only three hundred tons cyanide a month. Absolute embargo on all intermediate dyestuffs. This put on through influence [Page 355] of German dyestuffs trust, thinks present time apt for killing all, manufacture of dyestuffs in America. For discrimination against American goods, oils, meats, provisions, etc., see my reports 20 and 31, November 5 and 24, 1913, etc.1 Returning American ships bringing cotton have to return empty because of this absolute and qualified embargo.