Papers Relating to the Foreign Relations of the United States, With the Address of the President to Congress December 4, 1917

File No. 611.9331/36

The Acting Secretary of State to Minister Reinsch

[Telegram]

Department of State,
Washington, October 21, 1916, 4 p.m.

Your October 18, 7 p.m. If the Chinese Government will definitely take the stand that flour is included within the treaty stipulation forbidding export of grain you will urge the acceptance of the following conditions:

1. That no fee of 80 cents gold a barrel nor any other fee for the removal of the embargo be charged since such fee amounts to an export duty and violates Rule 2.

2. That since the embargo upon the export of wheat has also been lifted repeatedly in recent years as shown by the customs returns, there shall be no lifting of the embargo upon flour at any port unless at the same time there be a removal at the same port of the embargo upon wheat, and

3. That if Chinese be allowed to export either flour or wheat Americans shall also enjoy that same privilege.

Polk