File No. 763.72112/1148
The Ambassador in Great Britain (Page) to the Secretary of State
[Received 4.15 p. m.]
2141. The two groups of unsettled cargoes now are cotton, for the prompt settlement of which I am making all possible efforts, and the Chicago packers’ meat products. The prize-court proceedings on the latter are promised in June. The difficulty about the packers’ cargoes is the British contention that the packers have set far too high a price on their products. It has even been intimated to me that the packers show a disposition to dump vast quantities of their products on the British Government. The packers’ attorney, who has gone home to confer with the Department, I fear left a bad impression on the Government by the exorbitance of his demands.
Detailed statement of whole situation regarding cargoes goes by mail to-day on the Lapland.
The difficulty of securing prompt action is for the moment augmented by the internal differences in the Cabinet and the reorganization of the Government. But the probable new heads of the Admiralty and of the War Office seem likely to make our dealings with those dilatory departments more satisfactory than in the past. Our troubles have been chiefly with these departments whose heads have been less capable for our tasks with them than their successors seem likely to be.