811.61311 Germany/9: Telegram
The Ambassador in Germany (Sackett) to the Acting Secretary of State
[Received August 4—1:30 p.m.]
157. Department’s 146, 1st of August, 2 p.m. This matter was telegraphed from Washington and was published for the first time in the Berlin press on the afternoon of Friday, July 31. This preceded by about 1 hour your telephone call to me. Since that time complete accounts of the proposed trade in cotton and wheat have been published here and many of the news reports have included prospective deals in copper and other commodities as well. Canada, either the wheat pool or the Government, I have just learned, is evidently aroused by this publicity and is on the verge of approaching the German Government with a like wheat offer. I received a telephone call from Sprague, the financial adviser of the Bank of England who is now here assisting the German Government. According to him he was considering conferring with the Germans about this today. He agreed with my suggestion, however, that it would be inadvisable to bring up the matter at this time.
In accordance with the instructions in your telegram, I have suggested to the Foreign Office that some one be appointed to conduct negotiations for Germany directly with the Farm Board. The German Foreign Office appears to be anxious to continue discussions here at least to the point of concluding an offer to be sent through me to the Farm Board in both commodities. The reason is that the German Government has no one available in the United States just now who is competent to act for it. It is my expectation that tomorrow I shall cable some offer from it of a definite nature. At their request the Foreign Office officials assembled in a conference today. They seemed to be deeply interested in our suggestions.