File No. 763.72112/8091

The British Ambassador on Special Mission ( Reading ) to the Secretary of State

No. 389

Sir: I have the honour, under instructions from His Majesty’s Principal Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, to inform you that His Majesty’s Government propose, on the advice of the War Trade Advisory Committee, to make the following additions to the list of British absolute contraband:

(1)
For the sake of uniformity, as bamboo and rattans are already on the list, “willows and osiers.”
(2)
“Sodium fluoride” which is one of the raw materials used in the manufacture of artificial cryolite.
(3)
For expanded metal and other forms of iron and steel lattice work, which are much used in the construction of trenches and other military works, “tin waste.” In order primarily to cover litharge red lead and also for the sake of uniformity it is also proposed to substitute “lead and its alloys, salts, compounds and ores” for “lead and lead ore”; and in order to cover oxides of tin and also for the sake of uniformity, to substitute “tin and its alloys, salts, compounds and ores” for “tin, chloride of tin, tin ore”; and to substitute for “wire steel and iron,” “wire steel and iron and manufactures thereof.”

I am instructed to enquire whether your Government would be prepared to concur in these proposed modifications and I should accordingly be grateful if I might be informed, at your early convenience, of the decision you have been able to take in the matter.

I have [etc.]

(For the Ambassador)
Colville Barclay