711.415 Traders/29

The British Chargé (Osborne) to the Acting Secretary of State

My Dear Mr. Acting Secretary: On August 3rd I asked you whether we might shortly expect to hear the Department’s views on the two alternative draft treaties respecting the admission of Australian business men to the United States, which I understand Sir Ronald Lindsay handed to you on April 27th last. You told me that though the question would shortly be considered by a Departmental [Page 842] Committee, we should probably have to wait for a reply until Congress met in December next. You said that there would then be submitted to the Senate a Commercial Treaty with Poland3 which would include the provisions we wanted in respect of Australians. You added that the difficulty lay in the fact that these provisions would require an amendment of the Immigration Act:4 if they went through the Senate as a part of a comprehensive treaty with Poland the House would probably raise no objection to the necessary amendment of the Immigration Act and it would therefore be easier to obtain a similar amendment in connection with the proposed Treaty for enabling the admission of Australian traders. You thought, however, that if the Senate were to pass the latter first the House would demur to the amendment.

As I understand Sir Ronald Lindsay explained to you, the two alternative draft treaties which he gave you semi-officially on April 27th last, asking to be informed which the Department preferred, are entirely provisional in character and have not yet even been shown to the Commonwealth Government. As you know, they differ somewhat in form, and all that we are anxious to know is which of the two commends itself most in form to your Government for the purpose of arranging for the admission of Australian business men to the United States, and also which of the two is most likely to recommend itself to the Senate. The final draft of the treaty will be prepared only after consideration of your views on the two provisional drafts which you now have. As, therefore, it would seem that the difficulties over the passage of the treaty through Congress can only arise in connection with the final draft of the Treaty, do you not think you could let us have now a provisional expression of your opinion on the form of the two drafts?

Believe me [etc.]

D. G. Osborne
  1. See vol. ii, pp. 924 ff.
  2. Of 1924, 43 Stat. 153.