PROGRAM OF IMPORTATIONS
III. TOTALS
IMPORTS FOR BELGIUM AND NORTHERN FRANCE (Metric tons per month)
Commodity Northern France
Belgium Total Wheat (or
flour)
16,000 54,000 70,000
Lard 2,200 7,000 9,200
Bacon 1,650 3,500 5,150
Rice 4,400 5,000 9,400
Condensed milk
1,650 1,000 2,650 Beans and
peas
1,650 4,000 5,650
Maize 2,200 20,000 22,200
Sugar 1,320 2,000 3,320
Coffee 1,100 2,000 3,100 Salt (1,320) . . . .
Soap 1,100 1,000 2,100
Potatoes 13,200 10,000 23,200
Salad oils 330 400 730
Carbide 500 . . . 500
Preserved meat
1,000 1,500 2,500 Preserved fish 300 400 700 Cocoa . . . 1,000 1,000 Oleomargarine
materials
. . . 1,000 1,000
Butter . . . 500 500
Dried fruit ( say) 1 100 101 Linseed cake . . . 10,000 10,000 Sugar refuse . . . ? ?
Groceries . . . ? ?
Cheese . . . 2,000 2,000 Yeast
materials
. . . ? ?
Medical supplies
? ? ?
Clothing for destitute
. . . ? ?
Petrol, tires, and spares
. . . ? ?
.
DOCUMENT NO. 72 Letter,
PERCY TO HOOVER, concerning holding up bacon and lard cargoes and the return of empty tins in which condensed milk was shipped to Belgium
FOREIGN OFFICE, LONDON 28 December 1915 DEAR MR. HOOVER:
I am sorry to involve you in so many difficulties, but I have two points on which I must trouble you.
First, as to the "Livingstonia." I find that some of our people don't want her cargo to go on from Rotterdam till the final consideration of the whole question this week. The Admiralty have consequently held her up in the Downs, and I have said that, if she is released, I will see that the Commission does not ship her cargo from Rotterdam until this decision is reached. As I hope for a decision not later than Friday, this should make practically no difference. Will you see to it?
As a matter of fact this cargo, with what you had in stock at Rotterdam and with the remainder of the "Levenpool" cargo and the 1,450 tons of bacon and lard you have bought here, will amount to considerable more than the 6,900 tons a month which is now our temporary basis.
Second, as to the condensed milk. Our people are firm on the point about the return of the empty tins. The danger does not arise from the amount of metal in the tins but from the tins themselves. Germany is very short of tins, so much so that she is sending out empty tins to be refilled with preserved meat, etc., in neutral countries, and is collecting empties high and low.
Now I quite see that this means a considerable amount of new organisation on your part, but the re-collection of these tins should present no huge difficulties in itself.
Each commune can collect them fairly easily from the consumer each time the latter applies for a new ration, and all the way up the chain from the communes back to Rotterdam you must have a large number of lighters and lorries returning empty which could be used to carry these empties. An arrangement with the N.O.T.(48) would be necessary in order to secure that all the empties brought out should fall again under their control, and we are instructing Sir A. Johnstone to consult with the N.O.T. and Mr. Young on this point in connection with the milk he now wants authorisation to export from Holland. As some compensation for the trouble all this will entail on you, I submit that you might get something from the resale of these empties in Holland or here.
Will you think over this and let me have your views?
Meanwhile, can you take steps to have the Commission in Belgium and France keep a careful eye on the Germans and stop them at once if they try to collect tins from house to house as they are doing in Germany itself?
Yours sincerely EUSTACE PERCY .
The three preceding documents and the six following illustrate the bearing of
another important factor in the determination of the C.R.B. programs---the arbitrary restrictions placed from time to time by the British Government on the import program. These restrictions were the result, first, of the development of British blockade policy, which grew steadily in importance after the spring of 1915;(49) and, secondly, of the continuous pressure of a powerful opinion in the British Government which held that the Germans should have been compelled to bear the burden of Belgian relief and that the bearing of this burden by the Allies gave a military advantage to Germany. British authorities, therefore, watched the
administration of relief with ceaseless vigilance. Reports that some of the Belgians were selling cattle and pigs to Germans led to an order from the Foreign Office on the 13th December 1915 suspending the Commission's imports of bacon and lard.
The Commission's efforts to maintain the necessary program precipitated a long series of conferences and a voluminous correspondence. Hoover's detailed
explanation of the methods of relief administration and his emphatic statement of the needs of the Belgian people before a subcommittee of the War Trade Advisory Committee(50) on the 23d December 1915 secured a temporary relaxation of the restrictions on fat imports. But on the 31st December the whole relief operation was threatened because of reported exports of Belgian foodstuffs to Germany.(51) .
DOCUMENT NO. 73 Letter,
GREY TO PAGE, describing German violations of agreements and indicating the intention of the British Government to halt relief unless certain stipulations were accepted by the German authorities
FOREIGN OFFICE, LONDON 31 December 1915
MY DEAR AMBASSADOR:
On various occasions I have felt obliged to address lengthy communications to you as patron, in your unofficial capacity, of the Commission for Relief in Belgium, A very critical situation has now arisen regarding the affairs of that Commission, and I must therefore put before you briefly the views of His Majesty's Government.
On December 31st, 1914, the German Government assured the United States Ambassador at Berlin in writing that they would thenceforward prohibit the
requisitioning of "food or forage of any kind whatsoever which would require to be replaced by importations by the American Committee for Belgian Relief."
This undertaking has no doubt in large measure been observed in the letter; it has never been observed in the spirit, and even the letter has frequently been violated. I need give only one instance of direct infringement. Between November 1914 and July 1915, inclusive, the Commission distributed in Belgium six thousand six hundred and seventy-five tons, seven hundred and thirteen kilos of bacon and lard.
Yet the German authorities have requisitioned tallow in Belgium and between June 1st and July 10th four thousand and seventy tons of fats and oils were shipped from Belgium to Germany.
It is not, however, of such direct infringements that I desire to speak now. The Germans have interpreted their solemn undertaking of December 31st as covering only such articles as were actually specifically named in the Commission's list of imports, and they have drained Belgium of all subsidiary articles which serve to diminish the consumption of staple foods. They have done more. They have made no attempt to conserve native supplies even of those staple foods which appear on the Commission's list of imports and, where they have not requisitioned those native stocks, they have freely purchased them when thrown on the market, and have exported them from Belgium, either to Germany or to the army in Flanders.
Owing largely to lack of fodder the stock of pigs in Belgium appears to have diminished by some sixty per cent, and a large part of this diminution must be attributed to purchases by the German Army. In the same way, cattle are being bought up on a large scale, and are being sent south to the army. The resources of agriculture are diminished by the export of phosphates and guano. Only recently large quantities of Belgian sugar have been exported to Germany.
I am aware that the German authorities will adduce the comprehensive list of articles the export of which from Belgium is prohibited, as evidence that this account is inaccurate. But there is no reasonable doubt that exceptions are freely made to these prohibitions, in the case of exports to Germany, and it is also certain that they do not apply at all in practice to exports for the use of the German Army in France and Flanders.
These are merely instances. I will not pause to go over article by article the resources of the occupied territory which have been steadily depleted, nor need I refer to the wholesale requisitions of goods of all kinds which took place at
Antwerp after the fall of that city. I only desire to make clear the consistent German policy during the last twelve months.
Needless to say, this policy has applied even more to industrial raw materials and manufactured articles than to foodstuffs. The German Government is reported to
have recently made itself responsible for the statement that the economic condition of Belgium is nearly normal. I am astounded at this statement in view of facts which have become notorious. The textiles trades have either been deprived of all raw materials outright or have seen their finished products requisitioned in detail as they are completed. And what is true of the textile trades is true also of other
Belgian industries.
Moreover, Germany has invented a method of facilitating this process. She has exacted and still exacts a levy of forty million francs (40,000,000) a month from Belgium in the form of a special note issue. This levy provides abundant cheap currency with which Belgian products may be purchased, and the country is thus drained of its resources in exchange for worthless paper of German invention.
The result of this process has been clearly seen in the last few months. The
Commission, which had expected to be able to reduce its activities after the harvest, has increased them. It has made a series of new requests for import permits in
respect of various fresh articles of food, and it has largely increased its importations of bacon and lard. It is planning to import large quantities of clothing for the
destitute. This gradual expansion cannot continue, and within the last few days, as Your Excellency is aware, His Majesty's Government have felt themselves obliged to suspend temporarily the importation of various articles into Belgium by the Commission. The time has therefore arrived when the whole work must be placed on a more clearly defined basis.
Your Excellency will recollect that His Majesty's Government undertook to continue to issue permits for the Commission's imports of wheat into Belgium on condition that the Germans reserved the native harvest of wheat and rye strictly for the civil population. You will also recollect that His Majesty's Government
expressed their inability to give any similar undertaking in regard to any other articles of import, and that the whole arrangement was made subject to one fixed stipulation that "no foodstuffs shall be imported which will, in effect, replace any foodstuffs requisitioned or purchased in Belgium by the German authorities." I must now inform Your Excellency that His Majesty's Government can no longer tolerate the present position.
They are therefore about to lay down a programme of imports for the Commission which will be regarded as final. However long the German occupation of Belgium may continue, this programme will in no circumstances be expanded. Further, His Majesty's Government must make the following stipulations, which appear to be the minimum necessary to safeguard the livelihood of the Belgian people:
1. The export of all foodstuffs and substances fit for use as food, whatsoever, including livestock and fodder of all kinds, and also all fertilizers, seeds, and agricultural stock of every sort, shall be absolutely prohibited from the territory administered by the Governor-General. of Belgium to any destination whatever,
with the one exception that the Commission for Relief in Belgium may be allowed to export to Northern France, for distribution there by them, foodstuffs of which there is a clear surplus over and above the present or future needs of Belgium.
2. The export of all articles of clothing and of all raw material for their manufacture shall be prohibited except to neutral countries, and then only after full provision has been made for the present and future needs of the civil population, including the destitute.
3. None of the articles above mentioned shall on any account be used by the German Army of occupation in Belgium.
4. These prohibitions shall be rigorously maintained without exception of any kind.
5. The Commission shall be allowed to exercise any control over the stocks mentioned in the preceding paragraphs which may be necessary in order to conserve them for the future, or make them available for the present needs of the population.
If these steps are not taken His Majesty's Government will hold themselves entitled to reconsider their whole attitude towards the Commission, since its work will have become, through no fault of its own, a method of replacement instead of one of relief, and an encouragement to the Germans to deplete the resources of the country. In that case I shall have no choice but to publish the documents showing the conditions which have obliged His Majesty's Government to change their views.
Sincerely
(Signed) E. GREY .
DOCUMENT NO. 74 Letter,
PERCY TO HOOVER, concerning pasturage of German cattle in Belgium and new restrictions on C.R.B. imports of fodder
FOREIGN OFFICE, LONDON 25 January 1916
DEAR MR. HOOVER:
Our attention has been drawn to a notice in the Cologne Gazetteof December 14th last stating, with reference to a communication made by the German Government
to the Budget Committee, that in the spring of 1915 eighty thousand head of cattle were sent into Belgium to be pastured there and that similar action will be taken in the spring of 1916.
As you are aware, the German Authorities have requisitioned the crop of oats and hay in Belgium. If there is sufficient pasturage in Belgium to support eighty thousand head of German cattle, any lack of meat in Belgium must be clearly due to the action of the German Government and, in the presence of this fact, His Majesty's Government must hold the German Government responsible for the supply of meat to the population of Belgium.
Moreover, the Commission for Relief in Belgium is now allowed to import no fodder except maize to an amount of twenty thousand tons a month. As part of the resources of Belgium are apparently to be devoted to the maintenance of German livestock, a proceeding equivalent to the export of fodder which we have demanded shall cease, His Majesty's Government will be obliged to reconsider the permission given for the importation of this amount, and we must therefore ask you to import no more maize for fodder purposes until the situation is cleared up.
There is no objection to the importation of maize for human consumption being continued.
Yours sincerely
(Signed) EUSTACE PERCY .
DOCUMENT NO. 75 Letter,
PERCY TO HOOVER, setting forth restrictions on C.R.B. imports of soap to Northern France to prevent its use by Germans for military purposes
FOREIGN OFFICE, LONDON 2 February 1916
DEAR MR. HOOVER:
SOAP FOR NORTHERN FRANCE
Without prejudice to the list we shall finally and permanently fix, the Board of Trade will probably now instruct the International Commission to allow the export by you of your 1,000 tons a month for Northern France. But as this authorisation depends absolutely on the soap being of thehard variety not containing ingredients fit for military purposes (the kind you now are buying here, I think), we want it to
be understood for the present that you will buy all your soap in this country in order that we may be able to say at any time that we know that the soap is of the right kind.
I feel all these various small stipulations must give an undesirable impression of lack of confidence in you, but I beg you to believe that this is not at all the case and that it is merely a question of our being able to vouch for things of our own
knowledge and not on hearsay.
Yours sincerely
(Signed) EUSTACE PERCY .
DOCUMENT NO. 76 Letter,
PERCY TO HOOVER, giving program authorized after reductions insisted on by British authorities
FOREIGN OFFICE, LONDON 23 February 1916
DEAR MR. HOOVER:
I am directed to transmit to you the enclosed programme of supplies for Belgium and Northern France, to which it has been decided that your imports should for the present be reduced.
This programme has been submitted to the French and Belgian Governments for their observations with an explanatory statement of the grounds on which it is based.
I am directed to ask you to confine your imports within these limits till further notice, and in the case of all articles on the list you will of course only import when and as you are convinced that there is real need of them owing to exhaustion of native supplies.
Yours sincerely
(Signed) EUSTACE PERCY
PROGRAMME OF MONTHLY IMPORTS BY THE COMMISSION FOR RELIEF IN BELGIUM
I. BELGIUM