have been made in which it was stated that the account would run about RM 200,000, even if the importer knows that this amount would never be reached. The actual purpose of putting a limit as a condition for opening an account was to facilitate the handling of the barter business and to cut out other small firms. The worst that could happen if an account did not run to the minimum requirement is that the German Government, after some time, may say that they wish to close out the account due to lack of activity. In the meantime, however, the importer could have brought in his merchandise on the favorable basis of 25 percent discount. EXHIBIT No. 535 [Letter from Adam E. Schildge, president, Adam T. Schildge, Inc., New York, to Lentz & Hirschfeld, Bremen, dated April 27, 1937] Messers. LENTZ & HIRSCHFELD, Bremen. APRIL 27, 1937. GENTLEMEN: Your letter of April 19-GHD-relating to the opening of a reichsmark charge account for cables signed by Mr. Steineke. We will discuss this matter with your Mr. George Hirschfeld. We agree with you that in case of any investigation the cable just very likely will be of minor importance. However, it is quite truthful that the authorities will check up on cable instructions which were given in regard to the sale of cotton by American importers and the respective instructions to pay marks to the American importer's inland account. As it is now, such instructions are given by Mr. Steineke, as your United States representative. It would look phony if we, who sold the cotton to the American importer, would also give instructions relating to the sale and payment to you. Should the authorities ever look at these cables they will find everyone stamped “Charge to Adam T. Schildge, Inc." As they are not signed, it will appear on the fact that they were sent by us. Our idea was that Mr. Steineke open a charge account with the cable company, permitting the cable charges to be paid in marks by you in Germany, and that you, in turn, charge us. In such instances the cables would be stamped “Charge to F. Steineke." The writer was prompted to the suggestion through the experience that C. E. Dippel & Co. has had with the custom authorities. As a matter of fact, the cable which Dippel sent you in regard to his first sale of cotton was subpenaed by the custom authorities. Believe us, we have not tried to complicate matters, but we just want to do the business in a very cautious manner. Yours sincerely, EXHIBIT No. 536 ADAM T. SCHILDGE, INC., [Translation of a confidential letter from George W. Hirschfeld, Lentz & Hirschfeld, Bremen, to Adam T. Schildge, Inc., dated December 9, 1937] Confidential. LENTZ & HIRSCHFELD, Bremen, December 9, 1937. ADAM T. SCHILDGE, INC., New York City: Upon his return, Mr. Grobien gave his impressions about America to the United States of America commission yesterday, concerning which I wish to state briefly the following: According to Mr. Grobien's information, importers like settlement by inlandaccount procedure which functions perfectly. He is of the opinion that sales are going to decline within the near future, since business in the United States of America has become considerable worse. As to special permits, he was of the opinion that General Motors were also still working on same, about which we have our doubts as well as Üwa. He reported about the trade commission in New York, which, contrary to your information, does not only continue to exist but supposedly is operating per manently, with the provision that all firms meet once every 2 weeks, if possible. (In this connection it would perhaps still be a good idea for you to take up the plan again of having Mr. Schildge or Mr. von Rumohr join the commission; considering the volume of business, this request would probably be justified. Could you perhaps obtain some information again about sales of the individual firms?) After that Mr. Grobien visited Mr. Taylor in Washington. He is chairman of Johnson. Mr. Taylor's attitude toward Germany was friendly; however, he stated that he could do absolutely nothing about countervailing duties. A change in the dumping clause was out of the question, since it would require congressional approval, and there was no chance for it at the present moment on account of the general attitude which is against Germany. The Treasury on its part has no intentions of expanding the inland-account procedure and prefers to limit it to cotton, and even in this connection everything would have to run extremely smoothly. Originally, the Treasury had expected that nobody could do anything serious with the press release of December 23, 1936, and they were surprised that an entire business had been developed through the cotton trade, embracing a lot of small, individual transactions, while originally this structure had been intended only for a few large business deals. All commercial circles have been invited to hear Mr. Grobien deliver an address on this subject on Friday. Next Tuesday, Mr. Grobien, and most likely also myself together with Uwa, will have a conference with the man in authority at Berlin, namely, Dr. Bernhuber, director of the Reichsbank, Dr. Gerbaulet, counsel of the district court, and, if possible, also Mr. Blessing and Mr. Brinckmann of the Reichsbank. Of course, it is a question whether all these people can be brought together on account of the turmoil at the RWM at the present time, occasioned by Dr. Schacht's withdrawal and the Goering staff taking complete charge. Dr. Bauer, Reich deputy commissioner of the cotton supervisory board, stated in the course of the conference that it was his intention to exclude the small firms from the further development of United States of America business because they have had hardly any sales to speak of since the introduction of the procedure. However, we advised him to the contrary since it would actually mean discrimination against German firms, and the final result would be claims of indemnification by these firms to be charged to our business in Brazil. In this connection I would also like to state, strictly confidentially, that when Dr. Bernhuber delivered an address early in December at the Board of Economics, Bremen, of which I am counselor, I heard him mention among other things that inasmuch as the United States of America procedure over inland accounts has been running so smoothly, they intend to apply it also to some other goods. He mentioned oil and other products; however, dried fruit was not included. In connection with the other goods they would also strictly adhere to American regulations and closely check the stipulations. Of course, we are most carefully investigating this information, and our visit to Berlin on next Tuesday is solely for the purpose of upsetting these plans of the RWM. With German greeting, [Letter from Adam T. Schildge, president, Adam T. Schildge, Inc.., New York, to José M. Creixell, Jr., San Sebastian, Spain, dated August 10, 1938] Via England Mr. José M. CREIXELL, Jr. San Sebastian, Spain (Guipuscoa) AUGUST 10, 1938. DEAR SIR: You have been recommended to us by our Bremen correspondents, Messrs. Lentz & Hirschfeld. We also had the privilege of speaking to your father at the office of Messrs. Newman Bros. & Worms, of this city. We are engaged in the promotion of foreign trade in general. We are quite active in facilitating merchandise transactions between the United States and Germany. As a matter of fact, we, in conjunction wih our Bremen correspondents, have arranged considerable cotton shipments from this country to Germany on the so-called barter (compensation) basis. We have a subsidiary in Mexico, Compania Mexicana de Exportacion, S. A., 16 de Septiembre 39 Desp. 403, Mexico, D. F., which is transacting a similar business. We would like to facilitate cotton shipments to Spain (Franco territory). In exchange for the cotton shipped we could arrange that certain American importers of Spanish merchandise would use the proceeds from a sale of cotton for the purchase and export of Spanish merchandise to this country. You, no doubt, have heard of such barter deals being transacted in the past. We refer, for example, to coffee shipments to Spain. It goes without saying that such kind of business can be transacted only after necessary permits from the Burgos Government have been obtained. It is furthermore essential that these permits are complete in every respect and that imports made to Spain as well as exports from Spain are carried out exactly as provided for in the respective Burgos Government permits. We are mainly interested in arranging such barter deals on the basis of cotton shipments to Spain. However, we see no reason why it should not be possible to complete barter transactions by shipping merchandise other than cotton. We enclose a statement of United States exports to Spain as well as United States imports from Spain for the years 1935 and 1936, which statement, we believe, is self-explanatory. We see a good opportunity to build up some new business and we sincerely believe to be able to give advantageous service. We would appreciate it if you would let us know if you see any possibility of cooperating with us in regard to this business. Should you care for any credit references, you might refer to Messrs. Lentz & Hirschfeld, Baumwollboerse, Bremen. Yours sincerely, EXHIBIT No. 538 ADAM T. SCHILDGE, INC., President, [Letter from Adam T. Schildge, president, Adam T. Schildge, Inc., New York, to Lentz & Hirschfeld, Bremen, dated September 16, 1938] SEPTEMBER 16, 1938. Re: General Refractories Co., 1600 Real Estate Trust Building, Philadelphia, Pa. LENTZ & HIRSCHFELD, Bremen, Germany. GENTLEMEN: On September 15 we had a meeting at the office of the General Refractories Co. in Philadelphia. Present there were: Mr. S. M. D. Clapper, chairman of the board. Mr. Floyd L. Greene, president. Mr. M. G. Myrelive, treasurer. Mr. R. G. Walker, attorney of Montgomery & McCracken, a Philadelphia cotton merchant. Mr. Gerhart W. Schuetz. Mr. C. A. von Rumohr. Mr. A. T. Schildge. The meeting lasted from 11 a. m. until 4:45 p. m. (Mr. Chamberlain and Mr. Hitler took only 3 hours to talk matters over.) The results of the meeting were as follows: 1. General Refractories received from Adam T. Schildge, Inc., a release, copy of which is attached, with respect to any quality or quantity claims arising out of cotton transactions. Furthermore, the privilege to withdraw from any cotton contract if the eventually resulting marks credited are not needed by General Refractories because of the fact that the maguesite shipped is not up to the quality requirements. Also the privilege to withdraw from the cotton contract in the event that the United States or the German Government should nullify the cotton inland account procedure. The release was drawn up by Schildge's attorneys and approved by the attorneys of General Refractories. 2. General Refractories will have to receive from Lentz & Hirschfeld, Bremen, a release similar to Schildge's, draft of which release is attached. We ask you kindly to have this release written in duplicate on your stationery and mail it to us at your earliest convenience so that we can forward it to General Refractories, on your behalf. We have assured General Refractories that we will secure this release for them. 3. General Refractories secured a release from the American Austrian Magnesite Corporation, Pittsburgh, Pa. We have seen copy of the release. However, this is a matter between General Refractories and American Austrian Magnesite Corporation. 4. General Refractories has not yet received original letters from Radenthein, dated August 5, copy of which we attach. General Refractories, has, therefore, no definite payment instructions regarding cotton inland account. They wired on September 15 to Magnesit Radenthein, asking for cable instructions to pay via cotton inland account. 5. After points 1 to 4 are taken care of, General Refractories is willing to make, from now on, payments through cotton inland account. They desire to have the cotton purchases and sales transacted in an accurate and customary businesslike manner. Cotton documents have to be exchanged, etc., etc. 6. General Refractories handed to Mr. Schuetz properly signed signature cards. General Refractories will take care in writing of any transfers which should be made from their inland account. We were very satisfied with the meeting. At the end of it, Mr. Clapper expressed that he is convinced that all of the parties concerned are sincere and honest and this, after all, is the most important thing. We have no doubt that the inland account business of General Refractories will work smoothly. Yours sincerely, EXHIBIT No. 539 ADAM T. SCHILDGE, Inc., President. [Letter from Adam T. Schildge to Rudolph Wullen, care of the Deutsche Ueberseeische Bank, Berlin, dated September 21, 1938] Mr. RUDOLPH WULLEN, SEPTEMBER 21, 1938. Care of the Deutsche Ueberseeische Bank, Berlin, Germany. DEAR MR. WULLEN: I trust you had a pleasant crossing. Regarding business, I would be greatly interested to get some more information about barter transactions with Spain. This refers to Germany as well as the United States of America. I would like to know a little more about the functions of the HISMA. I wish you would recommend my firm to your bank, especially as we, in conjunction with our Bremen correspondent, Messrs. Lentz & Hirschfeld, have just taken on the agency of the R. W. Grace Co., Peru, for the sale of cotton to Germany. We would, of course, like to have an opportunity to sell some Askimarks to your branch in Lima, Peru. The economic and statistical department of the Deutsche Bank could very likely supply us with complete addresses of the leading manufacturers and exporters in Sudeten, Czechoslovakia. It will not take very long before this part will belong to Germany and my firm naturally would like to approach the respective importers in this country in order to prepare for inland account payments. It goes without saying that the assistance we could get from the Deutsche Bank would obligate us to place respective inland accounts with that bank. Should you, in your return, find a minute's time to stop in Bremen, I would appreciate it if you would look into the offices of Messrs. Lentz & Hirschfeld, Baumwollboerse. Wishing you a pleasant time, I am, Yours sincerely, P. S. Should you pass by a cutlery store and it should be possible for you to bring me 2 dozen razor blades, as indicated on the enclosed carton, I would, indeed, appreciate it. EXHIBIT NO. 540 [Translation of letter from H. H. Lentz & Hirschfeld, Bremen, to Mauserwerke A. G., Schmalkalden, Germany, dated August 10, 1939, from the files of Transmares Corporation, New York] [Translated by C. Masch] MAUSERWERKE A. G., LENTZ & HIRSCHFELD, Schmalkalden: We would ask you to advise us whether you are already represented in Mexico for the sale of pistols, guns, and machine tools. Our friends in Mexico would perhaps be interested in taking over your representation. The firm in question is registered in Mexico, and is being managed by a gentleman who had been sent there by us. The firm itself was established by our correspondents in New York, who are also Germans. It is, therefore, a real German, Aryan connection. Our friends in Mexico are on excellent terms with the authorities in question, and, on the other hand, have their own private Aski. Awaiting your advices, we remain, H. H. EXHIBIT No. 541 [Translation of letter from Lentz & Hirschfeld, Bremen, to Dr. Adam T. Schildge, Schildge von Rumohr & Co., Inc., New York, dated June 3, 1939] Dr. ADAM T. SCHILDGE, [Translated by C. Masch] LENTZ & HIRSCHFELD, Schildge, von Rumohr & Co., Inc.. New York: We refer to your letter of May 10, which you sent us from the steamship Saturnia, Lissabon. We had notified you at the time about the contingent situation at the supervisory board. We note, to our regret, that you completely misunderstood our remarks. All German imports are subject to a certain control. However, the authorities repeatedly emphasized that private initiative is to be encouraged as heretofore. If we cannot demonstrate today that we are sufficiently active to transact business, it may some day have an influence on the size of the contingent. The essential point in your letter of May 10 does not seem to be Mexpo in particular but your dissatisfaction with Mr. Hentze. We will write you separately regarding this point, and submit our suggestions. Of course, numerous attempts have been made with ore, coffee and sisal. However, it requires the proverbial Mexican patience to make any headway with these articles. You cannot expect transactions of this kind overnight; it requires a great deal of work which is closely connected with German export. As you know, we really do not have an abundance of gold and foreign exchange, permitting Germany to purchase everything that is being offered from abroad; we have to economize; that is, purchases are possible only if the relative funds are available. Regarding Mexico, the chief aim of Mexpo has always been to secure these missing counteritems. It is natural for us to support Mexpo's efforts by giving Mexpo our Mexican contingent if at all possible, in order to create a basis to cover at least the expenses. Please do not overlook that Mexpo's Aski represents an important item in its assets. |