611.5631/148
Memorandum by the Assistant Secretary of State (Sayre)
With regard to the approaching negotiations for a trade agreement, the Netherlands Minister2 said that he had received a cablegram from his Government making the request that our list of desiderata should be handed to the Netherlands Government by our representative at The Hague on the same day that the Netherlands Minister would hand to us in Washington the list of desiderata desired by the Netherlands Government. I replied that if this is the wish of the Netherlands Government we should be very happy to meet their desire. The Minister asked me the date on which our list would be ready and I replied that we would have it ready on April first and that it could be handed to the Netherlands Government at The Hague as soon after April first as the mail would carry it.
I asked the Netherlands Minister whether his Government was expecting to send experts to Washington for the negotiations. He replied in the affirmative. He said that he had seen by the newspapers that the experts to come to Washington were Mr. Lamping, the Director of the Service of Economic Information, and Professor von Gelder. The Minister said that presumably his Government would have its experts study the American list of desiderata at The Hague for perhaps a week or ten days and then sail for the United States prepared to conduct conversations and complete the negotiations as quickly as possible. We envisaged the negotiations taking place during the second half of April and the conclusion of the trade agreement at the end of April or early in May.
- Jonkheer H. M. van Haersma de With.↩