Foreign Relations of the United States Diplomatic Papers, 1934, General, the British Commonwealth, Volume I

611.4731/103: Telegram

The Consul General at Sydney (Caldwell) to the Secretary of State

Sydney, May 16, 1934—3 p.m.
[Received May 16—11:10 a.m.]

Department’s telegram May 15, 6 p.m., sentence in Department’s telegram May 5, 2 p.m., was correctly received and repeated in my telegram of May 10, 5 p.m.

The question is whether damage to American transportation interests is not caused by Australian Customs Act of 1901¹⁴ rather than by Canadian agreement of 1931. It would seem that diversion of freight from American to Canadian lines was due to provisions of Customs Act and occurred prior to and irrespective of Canadian agreement; that Canadian agreement merely made it no longer advantageous for Canada to divert some of her freight to American lines, our loss on this account being relatively unimportant.

Caldwell

14. The Customs Act 1901–1925 (printed and published for the Government of the Commonwealth of Australia by H. J. Green, Government Printer for the State of Victoria), p. 1.