File No. 763.72112/1911
The Ambassador in Great Britain (Page) to the Secretary of State
[Received November 21, 9 a. m.]
3247. Your telegram No. 2406, 4th. I have received following from Sir Edward Grey:
My Dear Ambassador: Careful consideration has been given to the memorandum which you communicated to me on the 5th instant representing that goods ordered and paid for in Germany and Austria between March 1 and March 15 should be accorded treatment no less favorable than that accorded to those ordered and paid for before the former date.
I regret that we cannot admit this claim as a matter of right but I should like to take this opportunity of saying informally that His Majesty’s Government would nevertheless be very glad to consider this point and others as special concessions if they could feel assured that [it] would conduce to a settlement of the whole question between the United States Government and His Majesty’s [Page 244] Government with regard to the measures taken by the Allied Governments in restraint of the overseas trade of their enemies. I have however noted with regret that particular concessions made with the sole purpose of removing causes of complaint on the part of the United States Government have not in the past produced the desired result and I am afraid we have had little encouragement to hope that we shall meet with greater success in future, each concession on our part having led so far only to fresh and more insistent complaints made by interests in the United States to their Government.
Yours sincerely,