File No. 763.72112/2020
The Secretary of State to the Ambassador in Great Britain (Page)
Sir: With reference to vour telegram of September 30, 1915,1 in regard to the shipment of fruit from Mediterranean countries and Portugal to the Netherlands without consignment to the Netherlands Oversea Trust, you are instructed, unofficially and without recognizing the British order in council of March 11, 1915, to bring this matter again to the attention of the British Foreign Office and urge that the same privileges be extended to American fruit as those granted fruit from Spain and other Mediterranean countries.
You are instructed to inform the Foreign Office that it seems impossible to escape the conclusion that, whatever the intention of the British Government may be, the effect of the arrangement by which Mediterranean and Portuguese fruits are allowed free shipment to the Netherlands without consignment to the Netherlands Oversea Trust, is to discriminate against fruit from the United States. In view of the fact that the privileges of this arrangement previously granted Mediterranean fruit have subsequently been extended to Spain, the [Page 503] Department does not understand why the same privileges may not be extended to the United States.
The Department has noted the statement in your telegram that the Foreign Office adds “that if the United States Government are disposed at any time to afford to British Government, in regard to the control of contraband trade, the same assistance and cooperation as the Netherlands have done, British Government will no doubt be prepared to make some concession in return.”
Cooperation on the part of the Netherlands Government regarding the control of contraband trade in the interests of Great Britain does not, in the opinion of the Department, justify discrimination against imports into Holland from the United States in favor of like imports when coming from Spain or the Mediterranean countries. It is not understood that the Government of the Netherlands is the recipient of favors or considerations from Spain or the Mediterranean countries through the arrangements negotiated by Great Britain with the Netherlands Government for the latter’s assistance in preventing contraband from reaching Germany and Austria, as a result of which the Netherlands Government might undertake to discriminate in favor of trade with those countries as against trade from the United States.
American exporters of fruit are greatly exercised over what they regard as a discrimination against American fruit.
I am [etc.]