File No. 300.115/7414
The Ambassador in Great Britain (Page) to the Secretary of State
[Received March 2, 11.40 p. m.]
3896. Your 2850, February 10, re sodium cyanide for Roessler and Hasslacher. Foreign Office states that British Ambassador in Washington has been instructed to explain the situation to United States Government and that position is as follows:
Before the war three quarters of the cyanide required for the Rand was imported from Germany. Now that this supply has been cut off and that the extra demands upon factories in this country have already overtaxed them, the supply of cyanide for the purposes of the British demand is inadequate. There is therefore no cyanide available for sale to the United States and the allegation which it is understood has been made that His Majesty’s Government are deliberately preventing sale from British sources to the United States is absolutely untrue.
Foreign Office further states that it is understood that there is good reason to believe that it would be possible to produce in the United States all the [Page 564] cyanide required, and that the Roessler and Hasslacher Chemical Company, half of whose stock is owned in Germany, are promoting the agitation in order to keep in German hands the interest of supplying the United States with cyanide.