File No. 841.711/1858a
The Secretary of State to the Counselor of the British Embassy (Barclay)
My Dear Mr. Barclay: Although the Ambassador is absent, I feel that I must bring to your immediate attention a matter which has given me some concern.
I understood in an interview I had with Sir Richard Crawford on Thursday the 21st, that he intended to go to New York to inquire into certain complaints arising from the British and French censorship of mails. It was with surprise, therefore, that I read in the newspapers that Sir Richard had, according to the reports published, taken the opportunity as a member of the British Embassy and an officer of your Government, to expound to a body of American business men, who I am advised came together at his suggestion, the blacklisting plan of your Government, to impress them with the advantages of the plan, and to open the way for further discussion of certain phases of the censorship or blacklisting plans.
The exact purpose of this movement I do not know, but it is at least open to the inference of being aimed at modifying the harshness of a policy which is fundamentally objectionable to my Government, and of inducing American business men to submit to the proposed modification rather than to claim their just rights through the interposition of their Government—in short, to endeavor, to weaken my Government’s efforts to maintain the rights of American traders by substituting in a degree direct discussion with them for a diplomatic discussion of the subject by our Governments. The ill effects of such a practice are so evident that I need not set them forth here, nor present other grounds, which perhaps may be more serious, regarding activities of this sort on the part of diplomatic or other agents of His Majesty’s Government in this country which appear to overstep the bounds of diplomatic propriety and usage in dealing with subjects affecting the rights of nationals.
It is hardly necessary to add that I am making my Government’s position on this subject clear to you in order to avoid possible misunderstandings and regrettable incidents in the future, which I am sure is our mutual desire in conducting the relations between our countries.
I am [etc.]