File No. 656.119/200½
The Acting Secretary of State to the Minister in the Netherlands ( Garrett)
1017. Your No. 2101, March 6, 5 p.m. We are fully alive to the importance of prompt suitable publicity in the event that requisitioning [Page 1406] is decided upon and the course proposed by you is approved in general. We will shortly cable you in greater detail commenting on your specific suggestions and proposing one or two additional points of view. It is not practicable to announce immediately the setting aside of grain for the Dutch Government in an American port, as there is no such grain available, and grain for Holland will probably for the most part have to be lifted from Argentine. We authorize, however, the giving of immediate publicity, if you see fit, to the circumstances surrounding the offer of food contained in the recently signed modus vivendi whereby the Adonis and Samarinda with cargoes of rice and coffee were permitted to proceed from the United States to Holland provided equivalent tonnage left Holland for the United States. Germany’s refusal to permit Dutch ships to leave Holland as agreed, which refusal is we assume generally known and has been informally mentioned to us by the Dutch Minister, constitutes clear evidence of coercion, causing Holland to violate a solemn agreement with another state with the result of preventing her securing foodstuffs which the United States has offered.