800.6354/151: Telegram
The Ambassador in the United Kingdom (Kennedy) to the Secretary of State
[Received September 18—10:55 a.m.]
1693. I have received this morning the following letter from Malcolm MacDonald: [Page 933]
“I have now had an opportunity to discuss your letters of the 12th and 13th of September with my advisers and I understand that Clauson has been in communication with Butterworth and brought him up to date regarding the situation both of tin and rubber.
“A discussion of the tin situation took place on Friday morning at which all those principally concerned with tin in this country were present. It had been hoped that a Dutch representative would also be present but this proved to be impossible. I am in a position to inform you confidentially that the International Tin Committee have been invited to make a further substantial increase in the tin quota for the third quarter of the present year. As both the British and Dutch are committed to agreeing to the proposal it can be taken as practically certain that it will be approved. This procedure was adopted in preference to the proposal for an increase of the quota in the fourth quarter suggested in your letter as it meant earlier action and left room for an increase in the quota for the fourth quarter at a later date if that should prove necessary. The effect of the proposal will be to allow practically unrestricted export of tin for several weeks to come.
“You will no doubt have heard that arrangements have been made to re-open the London and Malayan tin markets today and simultaneously to fix a maximum price in those markets.
“With this action it seems to me that everything in the power of the British Government has been done to increase the supply of tin and to hold down the price. If it is not successful it will only be because purchasers and speculators insist on pressing quite unreasonable demands for tin.
“As regards rubber, the position is much less serious as the price has never risen as wildly as the price of tin but the British representatives on the International Committee are fully alive to the need for seeing that adequate supplies reach the markets. As a first step action has already been taken to issue in advance the export licences in Malaya for the fourth quarter so as to fill up some shipping space which is now available. The International Committee or such members of it as can be present are to meet on the 21st and Viles’90 proposal for an increase in quota will then be considered. It is clear that American consumption is increasing and full account will, I have no doubt, be taken of that fact by the International Rubber Regulation Committee. Against that however must be set the fact that Germany and Poland, neither of which are in a position to obtain more than very small supplies of rubber at present, normally take nearly 100,000 tons a year. However, I have asked the British representatives on the Committee to use their influence with the Committee to go as far as possible to meet Viles’ wishes.”
- American representative on the Advisory Panel of the International Rubber Regulation Committee.↩