681.003/150: Telegram
The Secretary of State to the Ambassador in France ( Straus )
61. Your 122, February 12, 1 p.m.45 You may advise the French Government that this Government does not feel that it could usefully negotiate on the proposals regarding Morocco as outlined in the French memorandum and the appendix to the memorandum enclosed with your despatch 1529 of January 16, since the project, as we interpret it, involving a system of quotas which are inherently discriminatory, and a unilateral balancing of trade, is out of harmony (1) with the principle of commercial equality as guaranteed to the Powers in the Act of Algéciras, and by the French in various treaties which constitute the basis of the French Administration in Morocco, as cited in paragraphs 4 and 5 of the Department’s 669 of December 18, and (2) with our general policy to encourage the fullest volume of mutually profitable commerce throughout the world by the removal of trade barriers.
- Not printed.↩