File No. 600.119/620
The Counselor for the Department of State ( Polk ) to the Commercial Adviser of the British Embassy ( Crawford )
My Dear Sir Richard : I beg to acknowledge the receipt of your note of March 18, 1918, enclosing a copy of a letter which you addressed to Mr. Vance McCormick in regard to steps which are being taken by neutral countries to exact artificial prices from belligerents for commodities which they are in a favorable position to supply.
In this connection I beg to inform you that, at a recent meeting of the War Trade Board, it was resolved, after a discussion of the question of the control of prices of exports to the northern neutrals, that until a detailed plan for putting such control into effect should have been submitted, that Board was not disposed to express any approval of the principle of the control of prices of exports.
I am [etc.]