811.61311 Germany/14: Telegram
The Ambassador in Germany (Sackett) to the Acting Secretary of State
[Received August 10—9:35 a.m.]
166. Supplement to the Embassy’s 163, 8th of August, 2 p.m. The Foreign Office, just before receiving your 148, of August 7, had submitted to me, following previous instructions, the wheat proposal which I foreshadowed in my 159 of August 5, last paragraph. In effect, this proposal was one for approximately 500,000 metric tons at market prices of diversified grades of hard wheat. In spite of my insistence, the proposal contains no recognition of the principle of maximum and minimum prices and as I believe that the Germans can meet such a condition I informed the Foreign Office that I knew the proposal would not be acceptable; and that, therefore, there was no use in transmitting it to the Farm Board.
The Farm Board, I indicated, could sell at market prices to anyone on the more favorable terms of a short-term credit and a high rate of interest and the German Government would have to make a better proposal, from a purely business standpoint, if it wanted long-time credit and a low rate of interest, not to speak of the more general advantages resulting from the acquisition of credit on such easy terms from an agency of the United States Government. It was, therefore, my suggestion that the German Government reconsider its position. The proposal apparently emanated primarily from the Ministry of Agriculture. The Chancellor and the Foreign Office have a broader point of view, as indicated in the Embassy’s telegram number 163 of August 8. If the German Government, as seems possible, appoints agents for dealing with the Farm Board, the latter may properly insist on the condition of maximum and minimum prices.