File No. 763.72112/5126
The Ambassador in France ( Sharp) to the Secretary of State
[Received October 17, 5.15 a.m.]
2602. Your 2664, September 18.1 Foreign Office states that black list was suppressed out of deference to the United States at the moment of its entry into war but that this measure being purely one of international courtesy could not be considered as rehabilitating houses established in the United States which are either of the enemy nationality or suspected of enemy association. French houses or houses established in France which resume their relations with the establishments in question fall under the law of April 4, 1915, for trafficking with the enemy. For this reason the French Government found it necessary to warn a French house against the firm of Carl Grubnau which is a German.
The French Government has learned with satisfaction that American Congress has recently voted a law relating to enemy commerce but is ignorant of the (tenor?). If, as it does not doubt, the measures taken in regard to any houses established in the United States are of a nature to furnish all guarantees to French houses, as far as the application of the law of April 4, 1915, is concerned, it will not fail to raise the restrictions hitherto applied to the normal resumption of commercial relations with certain American companies.