561.311D1/73

The Chargé in Great Britain (Atherton) to the Secretary of State

No. 1976

Sir: Referring to the Department’s cable No. 118 of May 6, 6 p.m., I have the honor to transmit five copies of a report dated May 26, 1931, prepared by Mr. Raymond E. Cox, First Secretary of this Embassy, on the Conference of Wheat Exporting Countries held in London, May 18–23, 1931. Mr. Cox was Secretary of the American Delegation to this Conference. The enclosures to the report are being forwarded to the Department under separate cover with a cross reference to this despatch.

Respectfully yours,

Ray Atherton
[Enclosure]

The Secretary of the American Delegation (Cox) to the Ambassador in Great Britain (Dawes)

Sir: I have the honor to submit the following report on the Conference of Wheat Exporting Countries held at Canada House, Trafalgar Square, London, May 18–23, 1931.

The Conference of Wheat Exporting Countries was convened in London at the invitation of the Canadian Government. The following [Page 640] countries sent delegations: United States, Argentina, Australia, Bulgaria, Canada, Hungary, India, Poland, Roumania, Soviet Russia and Jugoslavia.

The Canadian High Commissioner in London, the Honorable G. Howard Ferguson, was elected Chairman of the Conference. The meetings were private.

The purpose of the Conference, as expressed by Mr. Ferguson at the first Plenary Session on May 18, was to discuss (1) the disposition of present accumulated wheat stocks in various countries; (2) improving the methods for handling and distributing the wheat surplus of the future.

Early in the proceedings clarification was given to the views on these two items held by the American delegation, the Russian delegation, and the delegations from Poland, Bulgaria, Hungary, Roumania and Jugoslavia, the latter five acting together as a group. The delegations from Poland and the four Danubian countries desired the formation of an International Wheat Board with headquarters in London to determine wheat export quotas for each wheat exporting country. Practically identical proposals to this effect were presented by the Polish, Roumanian and Hungarian delegations.

In the opinion of the American delegation, economic adjustment of production in keeping with the changed economic outlook was the best method of solving the problem of present wheat surpluses, without resort to quotas or anything to disturb the freedom of trade on international wheat markets. The American delegation made it clear that the United States would not participate in any International Wheat Board to fix export quotas. It gave to the Conference the reassuring statement that the supplies accumulated by the Federal Farm Board would not be dumped on European markets and thus demoralize them. It also stressed the desirability of capitalizing on present low wheat prices to extend wheat consumption in Oriental and tropical countries.

The Soviet delegation refused to accept acreage reduction as a solution of the problem as Russia aimed at increasing her present production rather than diminishing it. The Soviet delegation, however, was prepared to discuss the limitation of wheat exports on a quota basis subject to the following provisos: (1) The quota for Soviet Russia to be based on the quantity of wheat exported by Russia before the war; (2) the largest wheat exporting countries to participate in the scheme; (3) States adhering to the quota scheme should not conclude any separate agreements between themselves or with a wheat importing country or group of wheat importing countries.

[Page 641]

At the outset, the Canadian, Australian and Indian delegations appeared to favor some quota plan, but the Canadian delegation held itself in reserve, never fully declaring its position. At the same time the Canadian delegation, together with the Argentine and Australian delegations, showed a receptive frame of mind to the attitude on the questions at issue adopted by the American delegation.

The points of view enumerated above proving to be irreconcilable, the delegates, in order to produce something tangible from the Conference proceedings, agreed to establish a Conference Committee consisting of one representative from each State participating in the Conference to—

  • “(a) Submit to the Governments of the countries participating in this Conference a definite proposal for establishing, under the supervision of the Committee of the Conference, a Clearing House of information to serve the wheat exporting countries. For this purpose, the Committee shall be empowered to secure from the States represented on the Committee full information as to the unloadings and stocks of wheat at all importing points, the areas sown to wheat, and the crop prospects, thereby assisting the orderly distribution of wheat in world markets. This information should be provided as far as possible in the form prescribed and at the times fixed by the Committee.
  • (b) To explore carefully all possible avenues for the greater utilisation of this important cereal.”

This Committee would also prepare and recommend a draft agenda for a further meeting of the Conference at such time as is considered desirable. Mr. N. A. Olsen of the Department of Agriculture, one of the American delegates, was named the American representative on this Committee. The text of the resolution providing for the Committee, adopted at the final session of the Conference on May 23, was sent to the Department of State in the American Embassy’s telegram No. 163 of May 23, 1 p.m.

There are transmitted under separate cover one copy each, in English and in French, of the documents distributed by the Secretary General of the Conference67 (the yellow and white colored documents being the Minutes of the meetings, the gray folder and pink colored documents being general documentation. Of the latter pink group, possibly the most interesting are document No. 9, the statement of Honorable S. R. McKelvie, of the American delegation; documents Nos. 17, 18 and 19, the Polish, Roumanian and Hungarian proposals, respectively; and document No. 26, the statement of Mr. I. E. Lubimoff of the Soviet delegation.)

Documents Nos. 13 and 16, entitled “The Chadbourne Agreement” and “Effects of Protective Measures adopted by European Wheat [Page 642] Importing Countries”, are, at the request of the Chairman, to be considered strictly confidential.

There are also transmitted under separate cover a copy of the “Final Act of the Conference” (white paper), giving the text of the agreement finally reached by the delegates on May 23 as outlined above, and the Directory of the Conference, containing the names and titles of the various delegates and advisers. A copy of the “Final Act” is attached to this report, together with single copies of editorials from the London press commenting on the results of the Conference.68

Respectfully yours,

Raymond E. Cox
  1. None printed.
  2. Enclosures not printed.