Foreign Relations of the United States Diplomatic Papers, 1939, General, Volume I

740.00112 European War 1939/767

Memorandum of Conversation, by the Assistant Chief of the Division of European Affairs (Hickerson)

[Washington,] December 6, 1939.

Dr. Tannenberg⁶⁷ came in to see me at 11:30 yesterday by appointment and handed me the attached informal memorandum dealing with certain alleged arrangements for the shipment of German merchandise from neutral countries to the United States. The memorandum reads as follows:

“According to advices received from American importers and neutral European shippers, the British Government has agreed to grant free passage to merchandise of German origin destined for the United States, up to December 31, if such shipment is accompanied by a declaration made before the American Consulate and legalized by the British Consulate in the port from which the merchandise is to be shipped.

Information is being sought,

(1) Whether an arrangement to that effect has been made between the Government of the United States and the British Government and, if so, what the nature of that arrangement is;

(2) Whether the American Consulates in Germany have received instructions to render assistance in such a procedure;

(3) Whether there is a chance that shipments on that basis will be permitted free passage after December 31.

Washington, D. C., December 4, 1939.”

After reading the memorandum I told Dr. Tannenberg that the answer to his first question was “no”; to the second question “no”, and the third question we had no information as yet on the subject. I explained that since the announcement that the British Government proposed to endeavor to stop exports from Germany, we had been studying the question with the view to formulating the attitude of the American Government on this general question. I went on to say that we had received various inquiries from individual American concerns in regard to how to get shipments of German goods passed by the British blockade authorities, but that we had felt that pending a decision on the question of our attitude respecting the proposed blockade we could not appropriately take up individual cases.

I told Dr. Tannenberg that there had thus been no communications passed between the American and the British Governments on the subject of the blockade, other than the circular note which our Embassy at London received from the British Foreign Office announcing the proposed blockade; that there had been no conversations between officials of this Government and the British Government in regard to any phase of the matter, and that with this background he could understand the answers to the three questions which I had given him.

Dr. Tannenberg said that the matter was entirely clear and he expressed his appreciation for the information which I had given him.

67. First Secretary of the German Embassy.