659.116/97
The Minister in Denmark (Owen) to the Secretary of State
[Received March 6.]
Sir: I have the honor to inform you that on February 15, I carried to the Minister for Foreign Affairs, Dr. Munch, the text of your telegram No. 2 of February 11, 7 p.m., as amended by permission of your telegram No. 3 of February 13, 6 p.m.
In presenting this note I called to Dr. Munch’s memory our conversation on January 29 in which I brought it to his attention that the policy outlined by our government for forthcoming trade agreements contemplated generalizing to other countries the trade advantages secured by the agreements excepting in the case of countries which had discriminated against the United States through the action of their own trade policy.
This conversation had ante-dated the issuance of the January Valuta permits and I expressed disappointment that the January Valuta permits had shown even more drastically cuts than heretofore as regards imports from America, and that the suggestion of discrimination evidenced in the issuance of these permits had resulted in the note which I regretted that it should be necessary to hand to the Danish government.
Dr. Munch, while explaining the difficult position in which Denmark found itself, with especial regard to the necessity of trading with its principal purchaser, Great Britain, stated definitely that he recognized that there must be no discrimination against the trade of the United States and assured me that he would at once investigate the situation with a view to finding an equitable solution.
On February 19, I carried a copy of the note in question to Prime Minister Th. Stauning with whom I had previously, during the interim [Page 174] in which he was acting Foreign Minister, conferred in the same sense as the January conference with Dr. Munch. The Prime Minister assured me that he would confer with the Foreign Minister and made the statement that there must be no discrimination against American commerce, and expressed the hope that it would soon be possible to arrive at an equitable adjustment of this matter.
I will, pursuant with instructions, report by cable the reply of the Foreign Office immediately upon its receipt.
Yours respectfully,