File No. 855.48/705
The Commercial Adviser of the British Embassy ( Crawford ) to the Counselor for the Department of State ( Polk )
My Dear Mr. Counsellor: On several occasions recently the Spanish-Dutch Committee for Belgian Relief have drawn the attention of the British Government to the policy adopted by the German authorities charged with the distribution of native food-stuffs of giving preferential treatment to Belgians working in their interest. The Committee urge that strong measures should be taken.
The attitude recently adopted by the British Government was to sanction imports of food-stuffs only on condition that equivalent native supplies were controlled and distributed by the relief organization, and in certain cases this was accepted by the German authorities. In practice, however, the imports of food-stuffs take place on the simple guarantee that they will not be requisitioned.
The British Government now propose to protest strongly against the action of the German authorities in using the distribution of native food-stuffs as a means of forcing the Belgian population to work for them and to intimate that unless this policy is immediately abandoned, and native food-stuffs equitably distributed, the British authorities will be compelled to revert to their former practice of refusing to sanction imports of food-stuffs of any kind, unless an undertaking was given that the relief organization would be permitted to control and distribute equivalent native supplies.
The British Government desire to know whether the Government of the United States will support them in this action. I should be glad if you could let me have an early reply.
Believe me [etc.]