File No. 654.119/110a
The Acting Secretary of State to the Chargé in Switzerland ( Wilson )
1378. For Dresel from War Trade Board:
Your 2387 and 2421.1 You are authorized to approve policy of Allies to modify Swiss arrangements reducing exportation of cottons and rubber to Central Powers. We construe article 2 as obligating full information upon all points including disclosure of stocks. Subdivision 3 of article 2 in memorandum between the War Trade Board and the Swiss Government in regard to exports, executed in Paris December 5, 1917, contains the following language: “It is especially stipulated that if Switzerland is able to obtain elsewhere supplies of the same goods of American origin, the amounts thus elsewhere obtained shall be subtracted from the quantities set forth in the schedules annexed.” The words “of American origin” have no proper place in the agreement and were put in under a misapprehension. The annexed schedules embraced the total Swiss allotment irrespective of where obtained. Please arrange with Swiss and inter-Ally commission for the elimination from the agreement of these three words, “of American origin.”
- Not printed.↩