611.4231/884
Memorandum by the Acting Chief of the Division of Western European Affairs (Hicherson)
Major Herridge came in to see me this afternoon and referred to our conversation on August 6 in regard to a possible reciprocal gesture by Canada if the American Government should decide to import for a limited time Canadian hay and oats free of duty in connection with its relief program in the middle west. Major Herridge said that he had given careful consideration to this matter but that he had reached the opinion that the matter is too small to have any material effect on stimulating support for a provisional trade agreement. He said that he did not know whether Canada had any oats to sell or not [Page 849] but that he doubted whether there was any sizable quantity available; he said that in Saskatchewan they have about 3,000 tons of hay available for export but that there is a shortage of hay in other parts of Canada and he does not know whether much hay could be sent to this country even if the duty were removed.
Major Herridge said that he hoped that we would understand that he was keenly desirous of instituting trade negotiations with us as soon as possible. He said that he was here to do business and that Canada must do business with some country; he said that they would, for many reasons, prefer to have it with the United States but that if we could not make a satisfactory trade agreement with them they would have to look elsewhere. He went over much the same ground as he did in our conversation on Monday, constantly stressing the fact that they would like to have an early decision from us as to whether we can open negotiations with them and, if so, when.
I told Major Herridge that we too were desirous of negotiating a satisfactory trade agreement to expand trade in both directions and that we would let him know when it was possible to discuss either a provisional trade agreement or a general trade agreement.