641.116 Fruit/36a: Telegram
The Secretary of State to the Ambassador in the United Kingdom (Kennedy)
1493. The following letter has been received from a member of the New York Produce Exchange:
“We have noted with satisfaction that the State Department has lodged a protest with the British Government against the embargo placed on apples and pears from the United States.
“The Associated Press quotes the British Food Ministry officials as saying that ‘Britain can hardly squander her foreign currencies in fruit when there are such things as war materials to be bought and paid for in America’.
“In other words, we and other legitimate business firms, as well as American agriculture, are being penalized for the lifting of the arms embargo.
“We hope that your Department will be able to obtain a modification of the embargo otherwise we and our growers and packers will most certainly bring pressure to bear upon our congressional representatives in order to obtain a correction of this situation. We are convinced that the British Empire, as well as France, are not in such desperate straits at this time as to force them to take such a step.”
The foregoing is typical of the reactions in this country to the policy of the Food Ministry as embodied in the Associated Press quotation from the alleged utterance of an official thereof. Please take a suitable occasion to impress upon officials the possible consequences of such shortsighted policy.