291. Memorandum of Conversation Between Queen Frederika and the Ambassador to Greece (Briggs)0
SUBJECT
- Views of Queen Frederika re Tobacco
At a luncheon given by Mr. Levidis, Grand Marshal of the Court, on April 18, Queen Frederika took me aside and spoke vehemently and at length regarding the problem of Greek tobacco. Her views in substance are as follows:
Tobacco is Greece’s most important agricultural commodity, economically and politically. The failure of the Government to dispose of the existing surplus might bring down the Caramanlis Government, “the best Government Greece has had for years.”
Greece’s free–world allies must find some way to absorb the surplus, or politically Greece will have no choice but to accept a Soviet offer. Such an offer would be a “national disaster”: it would involve only a small cash payment, the balance in Russian equipment and machinery (plus technicians) and possibly a steel mill. If within a few weeks the Government has not made headway toward disposal it will, she repeated, be impossible not to resist the Soviet offer. The Caramanlis Government might well fall on this single issue. Caramanlis himself, coming from Northern Greece, is peculiarly vulnerable on anything affecting tobacco.
In those circumstances the Queen expressed her inability to understand why “Greece’s allies and friends” do not devise some way to meet the problem. The surplus is valued at “only $30 million” which while a substantial sum is nevertheless a minor one in terms of the allied and especially American investment in Greece, certainly much smaller than what we have generously been supplying annually to maintain the Greek military. Considering the risk involved and the damage to the NATO Alliance which might follow either Russian penetration or the overthrow of Caramanlis, the Queen repeated that she was unable to understand either why some solution had not already been forthcoming or, in particular the attitude of the United States.
Her Majesty then complained that the United States not only buys less Greek tobacco, and of lower quality than heretofore (when increasing [Page 717] by only a tiny amount the proportion of Greek tobacco in each American cigarette “would solve the problem”) but we are depriving Greece of its Western European, especially German, market. This we have done, she alleged, by a tremendous advertising campaign which a poor country like Greece could not begin to match. And finally, she declared we are objecting to a proposed Common Market tariff on tobacco, thus jeopardizing the principal objective of Greece in seeking association in the Common Market.
There was considerably more along the same vigorous line. Most of the conversation was overheard by Foreign Minister Averoff whom the Queen summoned to join us.
I told the Queen in reply that it should be recognized that the problem is an exceedingly difficult one for the United States and for the State Department which has been working loyally on Greece’s behalf, seeking to facilitate Greek entry into the Common Market. The export market for American cigarettes, which do use Greek tobacco if not on the scale Greece might wish, is important to us. An almost intolerable situation might be created for us should the Common Market seek to levy a high tariff on tobacco and should that tariff seriously affect our exports. I said we were not objecting to a Common Market tariff per se, but to the proposed height of the wall.
The Queen declared that individual American companies probably spend more on advertising than the value of the present Greek surplus.
I did not undertake to argue the subject with the Queen at length and gather that the Foreign Minister viewed the entire conversation without enthusiasm. It is nevertheless reported as illustrative of the Queen’s interest in this matter. It is also representative of the strong feeling in many Greek quarters when tobacco is mentioned.
Without discussing the foregoing conversation, I inquired today of one of the American congressional Interparliamentary Union delegates1 of the accuracy of the statement that American cigarettes now use a smaller proportion of oriental (Greek) and a larger proportion of American domestic tobacco. He said yes, at least insofar as filter tip cigarettes are concerned.
- Source: Department of State, Central Files, 781.00/4–1960. Confidential. Drafted by Briggs. Sent to the Department of State as an enclosure to a letter from Briggs to Parker Hart, April 19. In this letter Briggs noted: ‘The tobacco problem is a tough one, and I wish I knew the answer. That, in effect, is about all I told the Queen.”↩
- The Interparliamentary Union met in Athens April 19–24. The U.S. Delegation was led by Senator A.S. Monroney of Oklahoma.↩