uch as cotton, is
obvious, but it is submitted that this is due to the general cause of
diminished purchasing power of such countries as France, Germany, and
the United Kingdom rather than to interference with trade with neutral
countries. In the matter of cotton it may be recalled that the British
Government gave special assistance through the Liverpool Cotton
Exchange to the renewal of transactions in the cotton trade of not
only the United Kingdom, but of many neutral countries.

Your Excellency's note refers in particular to the detention of
copper. The figures taken from official returns for the export of
copper from the United States for Italy for the months during which
the war has been in progress up to the end of the first three weeks of
December are as follows:

1913--Fifteen million two hundred and two thousand pounds.

1914--Thirty-six million two hundred and eighty-five thousand pounds.

Norway, Sweden, Denmark, and Switzerland are not shown separately for
the whole period in the United States returns, but are included in the
heading "Other Europe"; that is, Europe other than the United Kingdom,
Russia, France, Belgium, Austria, Germany, Holland, and Italy. The
corresponding figures under this heading are as follows:

1913--Seven million two hundred and seventy-one thousand pounds.

1914--Thirty-five million three hundred and forty-seven thousand
pounds.

With such figures the presumption is very strong that the bulk of
copper consigned to these countries has recently been intended not for
their own use, but for that of a belligerent who cannot import it
direct. It is therefore an imperative necessity for the safety of this
country while it is at war that his Majesty's Government should do all
in its power to stop such part of this import of copper as is not
genuinely destined for neutral countries.

Your Excellency does not quote any particular shipment of copper to
Sweden which has been detained. There are, however, four consignments
to Sweden at the present time of copper and aluminium which, though
definitely consigned to Sweden, are, according to positive evidence in
the possession of his Majesty's Government, definitely destined for
Germany.

I cannot believe that, with such figures before them and in such cases
as those just mentioned, the Government of the United States would
question the propriety of the action of his Majesty's Government in
taking suspected cargoes to a prize court, and