550.S1 Economic Commission/110
The Administrator of the National Recovery Administration (Johnson) to the Acting Secretary of State
The Administrator of the National Recovery Administration presents his compliments to the Honorable the Acting Secretary of State, and with reference to correspondence regarding the possibility of an international agreement concerning the production and sale of copper, and to the confidential dispatch #734 Political, dated November 15, 1933, from the American Consul at Geneva, Switzerland,12 together with its enclosure, a letter from the Chairman of the Economic Commission of the Monetary and Economic Conference, dated November 8, 1933, reporting on the matter to the Chairman of the Conference,13—your reference EA 550.S1 Economic Commission/105—makes the following report;
The views expressed in the report from the Chairman of the Economic Commission of the Monetary and Economic Conference on the subject of an international agreement with respect to copper, have been carefully noted.
The preparation of a Code for the Copper Industry in the United States has been receiving close study by the National Recovery Administration for some months, and the question of international production and sale is a factor which must be taken into account.
Close study has been accorded this situation by Deputy Administrator H. O. King who advises that his investigation shows that most of the copper producers of the world are in close touch with each other, and that problems of international control and production are so complicated as to make probable the necessity of securing agreement from the independent companies themselves, before any control either of production or sale can be exercised. This appears to be in accord with the opinion expressed by the countries, other than the United States, referred to in the report transmitted by Mr. Gilbert.
Your courtesy in transmitting the report included with Mr. Gilbert’s report is appreciated.