856D.6176/191: Telegram
The Secretary of State to the Ambassador in Great Britain (Bingham)
Washington, April 2,
1934—8 p.m.
131. Your 118, March 19, 4 p.m., and your 127, March 23, 5 p.m. In conversations with the British authorities the following are points on which definite responses seem required:
- (1)
- On what basis of calculation rests the idea of a price “reasonably remunerative to official producers” mentioned in the Foreign Office note?
- (2)
- On what provisions of the plan as under discussion is dependence put for maintaining a stable price?
- (3)
- What provisions of the plan would assure the rapid variation of export quotas in such a way as to make for both stable and moderate prices?
- (4)
- Short of the suggestion the American Government has put forward, that there should be some specified price at which all consumers of rubber would be guaranteed as large a supply of rubber as they might require, how can there be adequate safeguards against extreme price movements?
- (5)
- What is the reasoning behind the conclusion that the denomination of such a price as mentioned in (4) would foster speculation, or alternatively leave as large a field for speculation as an arrangement under which there was no specified price limit?
- (6)
- In the absence of any denominated maximum price is there any provision under consideration for the creation of reserve supplies that might become immediately available to the market if and when signs of undue shortage of supply or extreme price movements might occur?
- (7)
- What are the details of the provisions for giving the consumer interests effective representation in the operation of the scheme, as regards method of selection of consumer representatives, rights to participate in meetings of control bodies, and rights to make their views of written record?
- (8)
- What provisions are under consideration for a systematic and continuous statistical service for the information of consuming interests and the public?
Please make clear to the British authorities this Government invites discussion of matters reviewed above. You may also explain that the more this Government knows about the scheme the better directed its remarks and suggestions might be.
Hull