File No. 711.5914/27

Minister Egan to the Secretary of State

[Extracts]
No. 850

Sir: The question of a possible sale of the Danish Antilles to the United States forms an undercurrent of thought here, much evidene in recent talks I have had with important personages, owing to the latest reports from the islands of the failure of the sugar plantations. Admiral de Richelieu and Etatsraad Andersen, representing the East Asiatic Company, and conservative in politics, would at present be unfavorable to the sale, but the following account of a recent conference with the Minister of Foreign Affairs, who represents the opinion of the majority of voters in Denmark, will give the Department an impression of the condition of public opinion on this matter.

In a conversation with the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Mr. Erik de Scavenius, on May 5, 1915, I asked him what was the present condition of the Danish West India Islands. He answered that, economically, they were very bad and that the latest reports from the planters of sugar showed that industry to be in a deplorable condition, partly because of the American tariff, but without doubt because of the fact that the soil has been too long used for the production of sugar and that to make a change leading to a rotation of crops would at present incur too much loss. I then suggested that it was evident that the capitalists, who were interested in keeping the West India Islands as Danish possessions in 1902, had evidently changed their opinion as to the financial value of these islands. He said that he had no doubt that this was true. I then said that, leaving out of the question the subject of national honor which had so often been alluded to during the previous negotiations regarding the sale of the islands to the United States, there seemed no reason why Denmark should not part with the islands, as I knew there would be no objection on the part of the citizens of the islands. He answered that the best of the citizens, the skilled, the cleverest and the most ambitious were leaving the islands in order to find greater opportunities in the United States and that the Government at present saw no way of changing this.

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In speaking of the improvements in the harbor, undertaken under the auspices of the East Asiatic Company, he said that he had heard no reports of the success of these operations and that personally he had no belief in their success. I then asked him what would be his personal attitude towards the sale of the islands to us. He answered that personally, he emphasized the fact that he did not speak officially, he thought that the islands ought to be sold, and that they eventually would be sold to the United States. I said that during my stay in Denmark, as Minister, I had occasionally been asked by influential Americans why the United States did not buy the islands, but I had had no intimation that the Government of the United States considered the time propitious for the encouragement of any proposals from Denmark to the. United States as to this sale; that, personally, I should have been glad to present to my Government any proposal of the kind, but that up to the present time this had only been a personal attitude on my part. The present, Mr. Scavenius said, was a time hardly ripe for any proposal on the part of Denmark, but, if the United States gave any encouragement to the consideration of the possibility of such a sale, it might be possible.

He felt sure that the attitude of the United States, which was so sympathetic and kindly toward Denmark, would convince the Danish people that the American Government was not trying to force a sale from a small nation only because it was a small nation. As I had heard the objection used before that, in the two previous attempts of the United Status to buy the Danish Antilles, the Government of the United States had selected the Danish islands because Denmark was supposed to be small and poor, I at once answered that Denmark now was not poor; that I understood that it was very prosperous, and that a country which included Greenland and Iceland could hardly be considered territorially small.* * *

In parting we agreed that it would be to the advantage of the United States and Denmark to arrange for the transfer of the islands provided such an opportunity should occur. We again assured each other that our conversation was in no way official but in every respect tentative and personal.

I have [etc.]

Maurice Francis Egan