611.4731/133: Telegram
The Consul General at Sydney (Moffat) to the Secretary of State
Sydney, October 8, 1935—8
p.m.
[Received October 8—2:05 p.m.]
[Received October 8—2:05 p.m.]
Department’s telegram of September 23, 6 p.m.; and my September 23 [26], 3 p.m.
- 1.
- I learned in Canberra that Sir Henry Gullett’s plans had been altered and that he is returning as soon as possible from England via Suez or the Cape.
- 2.
- Meanwhile as a result of the feeling he had gained in his conversations with the President, Mr. Hull and Mr. Roper11 that any trade desiderata Australia might present would be given careful consideration to see if they offered a basis for future negotiations, Mr. Lyons told me he was having our trade position studied and would eventually submit new desiderata through channels. He felt that this method would be more effective under present conditions than a trade delegation.
- 3.
- During the course of several conversations Mr. Lyons kept reverting to the problem of the Matson Line as the most immediately pressing difficulty between us. He seems less preoccupied now with the question of American subsidies than he is with the exclusion of the Union Line from the Hawaiian-San Francisco trade as a result of our coastwise laws. He asked whether our Government would not be prepared to grant a specific exemption in favor of Union Line sailings to and from Australia via Honolulu equal in number to those of the Matson Line, or if I was right in telling him that this was legally impossible at least to recommend such an exemption to Congress. The pressure against the Matson Line was steadily increasing and causing him growing political embarrassment. He did not feel that he could much longer prevent legislation excluding non-British ships from the Tasman trade (which I told him might prove to be the opening of a Pandora’s box) unless he could soon have the benefit of some gesture or an understanding from either the Matson Line or the American Government.
Moffat
- Daniel C. Roper, Secretary of Commerce.↩