File No. 103.94/403
The Ambassador in Great Britain ( Page ) to the Secretary of State
[Received 11.55 p.m.]
1809. To Baruch from Summers:
Maritime Transport Council has notified programme committees that recent changes in tonnage situation necessitate general survey of shipping and requirements position for cereal year ending August 31, 1919, and asks approximate provisional estimate of requirements. We have not yet received replies to our cables numbers 1450 and W133 seeking information for 1918 and 1919 programmes for jute, flax, hemp, miscellaneous fibers.1 When may we expect such replies? Otherwise compelled to proceed to best of our ability.
Council further says, “the actual recorded consumption of civilian commodities generally during past year shall be taken as setting the maximum limit for programmes of importation during the ensuing year, this decision, however, not preventing a different distribution as between the Allies or greater importation of a particular commodity than last year where stocks have been used up and a larger importation is required to avoid reduction of consumption. This principle should be borne in mind in preparation of 1919 programme.”
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- Patterson.
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