File No. 763.72112/2592

The Secretary of State to Representative George F. O’Shaunessy

Sir: I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of your letter of June 1, 1916, with reference to arrangements effected with Great Britain for the uninterrupted shipment of goods of German and Austrian origin for the benefit of American industries.2

In addition to a large number of applications for assurances of non-interference with the shipment of goods of German or Austrian origin ordered prior to March 1, 1915, and filed by individuals or firms with the office of the Foreign Trade Adviser of this Department prior to November 1, 1915, which have been favorably acted on by the British authorities after having been unofficially submitted by the Foreign Trade Adviser to the British Embassy at this capital, assurances of non-interference have been obtained from the British authorities for shipments of sugar-beet seed, salvarsan, neosalvarsan and novocaine, porcelain guides for textile machinery, and dyestuffs for the benefit of American industries.

Assurances for the uninterrupted shipment of sugar-beet seed to the United States were favorably acted upon by the British authorities in the fall of 1915 to the amount of 140,300 bags, which is stated to be the normal annual consumption of sugar-beet seed in the United States. It was arranged that shipments in the case of sugar-beet seed should come forward consigned to the Secretary of Agriculture who would satisfy himself that the seed was required for domestic consumption and would not be reexported.

Arrangements were also made for the uninterrupted shipment of consignments of salvarsan, neosalvarsan, and novocaine to Mr. Herman A. Metz, the American agent of the Farbwerke Hoechst, who entered into arrangements by which this supply of salvarsan and neosalvarsan was made available to all users in the United States. The shipments of porcelain guides came forward to the Mitchell-Bissell Company who in turn were to supply them to the various textile works in the United States requiring these porcelain guides.

An application filed by the National Association of Hosiery and Underwear Manufacturers, Inc., on behalf of all the importers of [Page 397] knitting needles of German origin was forwarded on May 29, 1916, by the Department to the American Ambassador at London with instructions to endeavor unofficially to obtain assurances of non-interference with the shipment of these needles for the benefit of the American knitting industry. The Department, of course, has not had time to receive any intimation as to the attitude of the British authorities toward this application which, if favorably acted upon, will result in a supply of knitting needles which it is estimated will be sufficient for a period of approximately one year.

In February 1916, the British authorities gave an assurance of non-interference with the shipment of two cargoes of dyestuffs valued at approximately $5,000,000, to be consigned to the Republic Trading Corporation, an organization composed of the agents of the German dyestuff manufacturers, which entered into arrangements by which this supply of dyestuffs, if obtained, would be equitably distributed among users of dyestuffs in the United States. In April 1915, the German Government indicated its willingness to release 15,000 tons of dyestuffs for shipment to this country, and after a contract had been entered into between the Republic Trading Corporation and the representatives of the German manufacturers of dyestuffs, the Department instructed the American Ambassador at London to make appropriate unofficial representations to the British authorities in an endeavor to arrange for the uninterrupted shipment of at least $5,000,000 worth of the dyestuffs that had been released by the German Government.

Any application filed on behalf of American industries, although it may be filed in the name of one importer or association, should be made on behalf of all importers of the goods in question, and arrangements should be made so that the goods, if obtained, will be made available to all users thereof in the United States. Proof should also be furnished that the goods in question can not be obtained elsewhere than from Germany or Austria and that there is an urgent need for the goods in question in the United States.

In certain cases where it has been possible to obtain assurances of non-interference from Great Britain with the shipment of goods of German origin it has not been possible to obtain the consent of the German Government for their exportation upon conditions that are practicable. This has been the situation with reference to the shipment of potash salts from Germany, no shipments of which have come forward in view of the German prohibition on their exportation, although the Department, through the American Ambassador at Berlin, has made frequent representations in regard to the matter

I have [etc.]

Robert Lansing
  1. Not printed. Correspondence regarding the various commodities for which assurances were obtained is printed post, p. 523, and in Foreign Relations, 1915, Supplement, p. 207.