856D.6176/378
The Chargé in the Netherlands (Wilson) to the Secretary of State
[Received January 9, 1937.]
Sir: I have the honor to acknowledge the Department’s telegraphic instruction No. 43, of December 24, 12 noon, 1936, concerning the Rubber Restriction Plan. Today being the first opportunity, I handed a Note to Minister of Foreign Affairs de Graeff, a copy of which is enclosed herewith.12
It at first seemed best to put the points contained in the Department’s original telegram, No. 38, of December 5, 4 p.m., 1936, in the form of an Aide-Mémoire, but on going over the correspondence for 1934, when our original representations were made, I found that there were repeated indications that the Ministry of Foreign Affairs accepted our official intervention as entirely justified and reasonable. In my conversation today with Minister for Foreign Affairs de Graeff, I brought up this point and he reminded me with some emphasis of what he had previously said, namely, that they were most willing to listen to any opinion or argument which we might wish to present and in whatever form suited us best.
During the conversation I asked Jonkheer de Graeff if there was any change to be looked for in Netherlands rubber policy and reminded him of the assurances given us that four and a half English gold pence would be a satisfactory price and one beyond which their restriction policy did not aspire. I pointed out that the present price was considerably more than four and a half English gold pence [Page 520] and was still going up, a thing which seemed to me to prove that the speculators acquainted with world rubber conditions must see eye to eye with the American consumers representatives, who feel that even the increased deliveries permitted by the arrangement of December 15th in London will not suffice to prevent a rubber shortage in 1937.
Jonkheer de Graeff was of necessity somewhat noncommittal with regard to details. These matters are not in his bands but are really controlled by Professor van Gelderen in the Ministry of Colonies, under the supervision of Premier Colijn. However, he did repeat that the Netherlands did not want excessively high prices and definitely did not want an improper balance between supply and demand and that we could count on their cooperation. I do not attach great importance to these rather general assurances but will perhaps be in a better position to inform the Department after seeing Professor van Gelderen, which I expect to do tomorrow or next day.
Respectfully yours,
- Not printed.↩