740.00112 European War 1939/1298: Telegram
The Secretary of State to the Ambassador in the United Kingdom (Kennedy)
662. Your 904, April 10, 5 p.m., and Department’s 643, April 9, 5 p.m.49 Another conversation with representative of British Embassy [Page 49] has just taken place in the Department on the subject of exports from Germany to the United States. We reiterated our position that draft press statement briefed in telegram above referred to would be considered highly unsatisfactory by American importers whose orders and payments therefor substantially complied with requirements of British “notice to traders” issued last November. We strongly feel that establishment by importers of the fact that shipments were definitely contracted for before November 27 and paid for before January 1, 1940, should be sufficient to effect release of goods. We feel that new requirement as contained in draft press statement that “the payment made or credit issued shall have been legally due under the original contract” is definitely a new element of which American importers were not aware and had no reason to expect when they made payment before January 1, 1940, in line with the British notice to traders. We feel further that the qualification quoted above would result, if strictly adhered to, in the rejection of practically all requests for releases as it is not customary in business to include in contracts of this type the requirement that payment shall be legally due by a certain date but that it is the generally followed practice to require payment to be made when goods are placed aboard ship or when delivered at port of destination. It is furthermore obvious that it was not possible for the goods to be placed aboard ship because they were not acceptable to shipping companies unless the permits had been issued by British authorities for their transportation to the United States.
We have presented our case to the British Embassy and Ashton-Gwatkin as clearly as we possibly could, but they tell us their rigid instructions from London hold out no hope that there will be any modification of the requirements for new requests as set forth in the draft press statement.
Wholly apart from our general position on this subject, we foresee that if no relief is afforded the American importers concerned they will undoubtedly feel very strongly that they are not being given fair and equitable treatment, and we feel also that it would be impossible for the Department to take any other course than to support their contentions.
- Neither printed.↩