657.119/1070: Telegram
The Chargé in Great Britain ( Laughlin ) to the Acting Secretary of State
[Received December 13—7:20 a.m.]
4600. War Trade Board [from Sheldon]: Number 2089. Your 1815 December 10th. Second section, discontinuance X cable system.29 ABC concurs with your suggestion to discontinue submission of X application of [to] London at earliest possible moment, provided you are protected by the receipt of important [import] certificate numbers from all Northern Neutral countries in same manner as is proposed for Denmark. Considered here that unless neutral countries are permitted to continue exercise full power over imports by advising you in advance of such importations as have been licensed, difficulties will arise in arrival of shipments which they will claim have not been properly certificated. This reservation of course will not apply to goods which are now on free list and to commodities that may be added to free list. Will telegraph detailed plan tomorrow.
- The reference is to a system of communications between the Bureau of Exports of the War Trade Board in Washington and the War Trade Board office in London, to aid in determining the status of export license applications. For a description of this system, see telegram No. 6210, Jan. 10, 1918, 4 p.m., to the Ambassador in Great Britain, Foreign Relations, 1918, supp. 1, vol. ii, p. 939.↩