File No. 111.70H33/a
The Secretary of State to Mr. Robert Otis Hayward, New York
Sir: In relation to the arrangements entered into between the United States and the Governments of the neutral countries adjacent to Germany, it has become necessary to employ special representatives [Page 972] of the Department of State who can, without being restricted in their movements by other duties, make inquiries and check up the use being made of commodities imported from the United States and ascertain whether the arrangements entered into are being strictly carried out. To this end you are instructed to proceed with all reasonable dispatch to The Hague and to report to the American Minister at that Capital for duty as a “Special Assistant of the Department of State.”1
It will be your duty to make a careful study of the needs of the Netherlands in respect to imports, the purpose for which those imports are utilized, to what extent if at all those imports are exported to Germany and in what manner; the extent to which in your opinion, based upon such data as you may be able to gather, the imports of various products might safely be reduced; and any other information bearing upon these points which in your judgment might be useful to the War Trade Board or this Department in dealing with the subject of exports to or imports from the Netherlands.
In this work it will be the duty of the Minister and the consular officers in the Netherlands to aid you in every feasible way by supplying information which they may already have collected and by making special investigations in their districts of subjects which you may have been instructed to investigate. You will in turn cooperate with them, keeping them informed of the work upon which you are engaged and giving them copies of such data coming into your possession as may prove useful to them in any studies or investigations of political or commercial conditions which they may be called upon to make. It is the Department’s desire that the diplomatic and consular officers and the special assistants shall work together in complete harmony, each assisting the other in his special field to the extent of his capacity and receiving in turn like assistance. It is also the Department’s desire that you should bear in mind that, inasmuch as your services will probably terminate at the end of the war, it should be your endeavor so to arrange your work and archives as to enable you to leave behind in the Consulate General as much of the experience and information acquired as may be feasible, in view of the fact that the responsibility for investigating commercial conditions [Page 973] and dealing with commercial problems will in the main fall upon the Consul General and other consular officers after the war is over. While the Department does not undertake to indicate the precise manner in which this shall be done, it is convinced that a frank exchange of views between you and the Consul General and the Minister will result in the formulation of a practicable plan.
You will consider such information as you may gather from all sources in the light of such data as you may obtain, through the agency of the Legation, from the missions of the Entente Allies at The Hague and prepare from time to time concise but comprehensive reports upon the general conditions of the country in so far as they relate to the subjects with which the War Trade Board is called upon to deal, your aim being to enable that board to gain in the easiest possible way an intelligent and accurate understanding of the facts which should form the basis of its action.
The original communications from consular officers and other data, upon which your reports are based, should not be forwarded to the Department but should be embodied in your reports, except where it becomes necessary for you to quote or supplement your reports with extracts from such communications of consular officers. It is expected that consular officers will not send to the Department direct copies of the communications which they send to you containing information for your use but you will, on the other hand, before forwarding your reports to the Department invariably submit them to the Consul General at Rotterdam for examination and written concurrence. If, for any reason, he should not concur in your conclusions, he will attach his comments in a separate memorandum.
Pending the arrival of a stenographer you are authorized to employ one at a rate of not in excess of $1,500 a year.
I am [etc.]
Counselor
- According to the Report of the War Trade Board (Washington, Government Printing Office, 1920), p. 282, “When the Bureau [of Foreign Agents] was created [Nov. 2, 1917), there were five foreign representatives of the War Trade Board, located in Holland, Denmark, Sweden, and Spain, there being two representatives in Spain. The number of foreign agents was increased during the year 1918 until at the time the armistice was signed the board had representatives in Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, the Canary Islands, Chile, China, Cuba, Ecuador, England, France, Greece, Guatemala, Italy, Japan, Java, Mexico, Norway, Peru, Portugal, Russia, and Switzerland, in addition to the four countries first enumerated.”↩