Mr. Doleżal’s secretary was approached by the Embassy with the
knowledge and approval of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and after
Mr. Wiktor Podoski, Chief of the Anglo-Saxon Section of that
Ministry, had stated that in his opinion the Embassy would be well
advised to discuss the trade situation with none of the “smaller
fry” in the Ministry of Industry and Commerce. Mr. Podoski suggested
that either the Undersecretary or the Minister (Mr. Henryk
Floyar-Rajchman) be approached by the Embassy.
A memorandum of the conversation with Mr. Doleżal is enclosed.
[Enclosure]
Memorandum by the American Chargé (Nielsen) of a
Conversation With the Polish Under Secretary of State in the
Ministry of Industry and Commerce (Doleżal)
Within the first few minutes of my conversation with Mr. Doleżal
it became quite apparent that his secretary had not informed him
that it was the purpose of my visit to discuss any points in our
note of June 5, 1935, that he might care to take up with me, and
to give him any additional information that he might desire to
obtain with respect to the policy of the American Government.
Until I stated the purpose of the visit the Undersecretary was
under the impression that the Embassy was about to press for a
reply to the note under reference, and he explained that because
the summer holiday season has greatly reduced the personnel in
his Ministry and because a number of his assistants who remain
on duty have been engaged in trade negotiations with Germany,
Italy, and other countries, the Embassy’s note of June 5 has not
as yet received the careful study that the Polish Government
desires to give to it. He said that his Government desires to
make a well considered and adequate reply to the note and that
in the course of a few weeks he contemplated requesting an
officer of the Embassy to discuss the matter with him before the
drafting of his Government’s reply should take place. I said
that I had received no instructions to press for an answer; that
the American Government would not desire the Polish Government
to reply until the latter had given the matter careful study;
and that the Embassy would be prepared any time that might be
convenient to the Undersecretary to supply him with further
information and to attempt to clarify any points that might
require clarification.
He thereupon said that he was familiar with the general outline
of the trade policy of the Government of the United States and
he remarked that at various times at Geneva he had discussed
with American representatives clearing agreements and allied
subjects.
He then went into a general statement of the necessity that
confronts the Polish Government to maintain over a long period
an excess of exports, or at least to insure that imports are
balanced by exports. He spoke of the great volume of raw cotton
that Poland buys from the United States and of what an important
part these imports of raw cotton play in the adverse balance of
Poland’s foreign trade with that country. He remarked that
imports of raw cotton are subject to no restrictions and he
added that Poland always has been well disposed toward trade
with the United States and that he could not admit that there
has been in Poland any discrimination against American
trade.
[Page 650]
To this I remarked that I felt certain that he would not desire
to contend that merchandise entering Poland from the United
States, a country with which Poland has an excess of imports, is
accorded in this country the same treatment that is accorded to
merchandise from Great Britain for example, a country with which
Poland has an excess of exports. I referred to the compensation
export requirement to which certain merchandise of American
origin is subject, and I mentioned the fees which are imposed on
such merchandise from the United States, although no like fees
are imposed on imports from Great Britain. Whereupon he revised
his original statement and said that he could not officially
admit that any discrimination exists in Poland against imports
from the United States.
Since Mr. Doleżal did not seem to be entirely familiar with our
note of June 5, 1935, I took occasion to outline for him in some
detail the provisions of the Trade Agreements Act of June 12,
1934; to point out that it is the view of the Government of the
United States that a return to world prosperity can best be
attained not by a policy of imposing further restrictions upon
international trade but by liberalizing or abolishing existing
restrictions, and to state that the American Government desires
to generalize fully to all countries the tariff reductions that
it grants in its bilateral trade agreements, but that extension
of these reduced duties to countries which discriminate against
American trade may be withheld. I said that one purpose of our
note is to ascertain the precise policy of the Polish Government
toward trade with the United States, with a view to making it
possible for the American Government to determine whether Poland
should be assured continued enjoyment of the benefits of duties
proclaimed under our trade agreements. I remarked that although
the Government of the United States desires to continue to
accord to Poland most-favored-nation treatment under the
provisions of the treaty of friendship, commerce and consular
rights between Poland and the United States, and although Poland
is listed in a letter from the President to the Secretary of the
Treasury under date of April 1, 1935, among the countries
designated as entitled to the application of reduced duties as
long as such duties remain in effect and as long as the
instructions of the President are not modified, whether, or not
my Government would find it possible to continue to list Poland
among such countries would largely be determined, in my opinion,
by the reply that the Polish Government makes to the note under
reference.
I stated that the American Government has invited the Polish
Government to cooperate at once, or as soon as it is in a
position to do so, with the United States and other countries in
pursuit of a broad commercial policy calculated to bring about a
world-wide increase in international trade. I said that judging
by Minister Floyar-Rajchman’s
[Page 651]
address at Poznań on April 28, 1935
(despatch No. 725 [723], June 3 [5], 193518), and by the interview which he granted
to the Iskra news agency on June 13, 1935 (despatch No. 739,
June 18, 193518), the views of the Polish Government are
substantially in accord with those of the American Government.
To this Mr. Doleżal replied with a smile that the views of the
two Governments are “parallel”.*
I stressed that the foreign trade policy of the United States is
not designed to benefit the United States alone, but to bring
benefits to the second party to each trade agreement and to the
world at large. As concrete evidence of the benefits that flow
from that policy I thereupon quoted from Assistant Secretary
Sayre’s address on April 30, 1935,19
before the annual meeting of the Chamber of Commerce of the
United States, in which he gave statistics showing that during
the first six months of the life of our trade agreement with
Cuba, imports into the United States from that country increased
from $30,000,000 in the same six-months period of 1933–34 to
$50,000,000, and that exports from the United States to Cuba
increased from $13,000,000 to $27,000,000 in the same periods. I
added in connection with the attitude of the American Government
toward increased imports into the United States that, as was
stated in our note of June 5, it views with favor an increase in
imports of Polish merchandise. Mr. Doleżal remarked that he had
noticed that Poland’s exports to the United States recently have
somewhat increased.
At the conclusion of the conversation the Undersecretary said
that he expects to remain in Warsaw the entire summer, or at
least for the greater part of the summer; that the Ministry
would give careful study to our representations at the earliest
possible date; and that in the course of three or four weeks he
hoped to be able to ask me to call on him again so that further
discussion might take place.
