If it had been the British blockade
alone a cry might have arisen in the United States against this
blockade which might have materially changed the international
situation.
The Germans also refused permission for the export of potash
from Germany. They hoped thereby to induce the United States
to break the British blockade, and offered cargoes of potash
in exchange for cargoes of cotton or cargoes of foodstuffs. The
Germans claimed that potash was used in the manufacture of munitions
and that, therefore, in no event would they permit the export
unless the potash was consigned to the American Government, with
guarantees against its use except in the manufacture of fertilizer,
this to be checked up by Germans appointed as inspectors. All
these negotiations, however, fell through and no potash has been
exported from Germany to the United States since the commencement
of the war. Enough potash, however, is obtained in the United
States for munition purposes from the burning of seaweed on the
Pacific Coast, from the brines in a lake in Southern California
and from a rock called alunite in Utah.
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