File No. 300.115/7200
[Enclosure]
The British Secretary of State for Foreign
Affairs (Grey) to
the American Ambassador (Page)
No. 196582/C
London,
January 27, 1916
.
Your Excellency: With reference to the
memorandum which your excellency was good enough to communicate
to this Department on the 6th and 22d November, respecting the
shipment of German and Austrian hops to the United States of
America, I have the honour to inform your excellency that the
matter has been carefully considered in communication with the
French Government in the light of the information which it has
been possible to obtain as to the actual need of German and
Austrian varieties of hops in the United States.
It appears that the United States produce more hops than are
required for their own domestic consumption, the export of hops
from the United States being considerably in excess of the
imports into that country. Thus, whilst in 1913 the total
imports amounted to about forty-eight thousand hundredweight
(practically all from the Central empires), the exports from the
United States to the United Kingdom alone amount annually to
about one hundred and thirty thousand hundredweight.
It has, I am informed, been stated that the strong flavour of the
hops grown on the Pacific slopes necessitates their being mixed
with imported hops, preferably of German or Austrian origin, but
it appears that the strength of the hops can be altered by the
use of soft or hard water according to circumstances There is,
moreover, strong ground for believing that hops which purported
to emanate from Germany and Austria-Hungary in the past were
often really of Russian origin.
It is understood that there are at present large stocks of
Russian hops of the best quality at Vladivostok, and Normandy
hops, which are said to be equal in quality to Saaz or
Württemberg produce, could no doubt be obtained. The Russian
crop amounts on the average to about eighty-seven thousand
hundredweight and the French crop to thirty thousand
hundredweight.
[Page 584]
His Majesty’s Government do not see any analogy between the case
of hops and that of beet seed, which is acknowledged not to be
procurable elsewhere at present than from Germany or Austria,
and which was required for the beet-sugar industry of the United
States.
There is no suggestion that the brewing industry is at all
dependent upon supplies of hops from enemy sources and His
Majesty’s Government regret their inability to give any general
undertaking in regard to the shipment of German or Austrian hops
to the United States of America as requested.
I have [etc.]
For the Secretary of State:
M. de Bunsen