File No. 763.72112/3201
The Secretary of State to Mr. Carl S. Stern
Sir: The Department has received your letter of December 6, 1916, with reference to the arrangement by which the British Embassy at this capital issues letters of assurance for shipments to Scandinavia.1
The Department notes the statement in your letter that your client has been unable to obtain certain letters of assurance for the shipment of cotton goods to Scandinavia and that where these letters have been issued it has been done after long periods of delay, but that at the same time other American firms have been able to get letters of assurance covering the same merchandise to the same consignees in Scandinavia, and also that the same consignees have been able to get the same goods without difficulty from England.
Without detailed information as to the transactions referred to, the Department can, of course, make no representations in regard thereto. However, if you will forward specific facts in support of these statements to the Department, the Foreign Trade Adviser of the Department will give his attention to the matter, with a view of taking up the matter unofficially with the British Embassy at this capital.
With reference to your request for information in regard to the steps taken by the Government under the provisions of the shipping and revenue bill to remedy the situation with reference to shipments to Scandinavia, you are informed that the Department is giving its consideration to the provisions of these bills, with a view to determining whether or not any action that it may take thereunder might effectively remedy this situation.
I am, [etc.]
- Not printed.↩