561.35E1/2: Telegram (part air)
The Consul at Geneva ( Gilbert ) to the Secretary of State
Geneva
, January 4,
1934—10 a.m.
[Received January 5—2 p.m.]
[Received January 5—2 p.m.]
1. Reference report of Monetary and Economic Conference 1933 sugar.1
- (1)
- Avenol has received in his capacity as Secretary General of the
Monetary and Economic Conference a letter from the International
Sugar Council2 the salient features of which are:
- (a)
- International Sugar Council decided at its meeting in Brussels on December 19 that as any action envisaged by the parties to the Chadbourne plan3 is necessarily dependent upon action taken by other countries, particularly the United Kingdom and the United States, the best step to take next would be to arrange for discussions between British and American representatives and representatives of the parties to the Chadbourne plan as to the possibility of concluding a world sugar convention. These discussions would be of a preliminary and exploratory nature for the purpose of deciding if a general conference of sugar-producing countries would lead to satisfactory results.
- (b)
- The Council proposes that the Bureau of the Conference should invite representatives of the United Kingdom, of the United States and of the parties to the Chadbourne plan to attend a meeting as soon as can be conveniently arranged at a place which suits all parties, possibly London.
- (c)
- The Council suggests that the Bureau should intimate that the British and American representatives should be government delegates with real power to speak for their governments and that inasmuch as any eventual world sugar convention which might result from a subsequent general conference would necessarily be an instrument between governments, it might be advisable to inform the governments of the [Page 665] various parties to the Chadbourne plan of the invitations sent to the latter.
- (2)
- Powell, chairman of the International Sugar Council, in a private
letter to Stoppani4 states that the Sugar Council has been in touch
with Cunliffe-Lister5 and gives the following summary of the latter’s
views:
- (a)
- The British Government is prepared to send representatives to a preliminary meeting and subsequently to a general conference;
- (b)
- He hopes that the proposed discussions will be on a practical basis and that the American representative will have authority to speak for his Government;
- (c)
- The meeting should be held as soon as possible and the British Government would favor London. Powell’s letter stated that the Council had been in communication with the Departments of State and Agriculture on the sugar question.
- (3)
- The Secretariat is handling the foregoing proposal solely in Avenol’s capacity as Secretary General of the Monetary and Economic Conference who would probably issue any invitations in the name of the Bureau of the Conference.
- (4)
- The foregoing has been made available to me on a strictly confidential basis with the request that it be informally communicated to Washington. I have been urgently requested to obtain if possible the American Government’s reaction to this project which will be awaited before additional steps are taken.
Please instruct.
Gilbert
- League of Nations, Monetary and Economic Conference, Reports Approved by the Conference on July 27, 1933 …, p. 25. For correspondence relating to the Monetary and Economic Conference, see Foreign Relations, 1933, vol. i, pp. 452 ff.↩
- The executive body of the Chadbourne Agreement.↩
- Thomas L. Chadbourne, New York attorney; author of the so-called Chadbourne Agreement, signed at Brussels, May 9, 1931, by producers of the chief European sugar exporting countries, Java and Cuba. For text of agreement, see International Sugar Council, Document C. D. 242: Memorandum on the Aims and Provisions of the International Sugar Agreement of 9th May, 1931, Annex I.↩
- Pietro Stoppani, director of the Economic Relations Section of the League of Nations.↩
- Sir Philip Cunliffe-Lister, British Secretary of State for the Colonies.↩