611.60d31/157½
Memorandum by Mr. Landreth M. Harrison of the Division of Eastern European Affairs
In continuation of the discussion of March 23 with the Finnish Minister with respect to the general provisions, Mr. Kelley telephoned the Finnish Minister as follows:
The Finnish proposal to omit all optional termination provisions in the proposed agreement cannot be accepted by the United States. All these provisions are standard and are included in trade agreements with other countries, including those with Canada13 and Sweden14 which contain commodities of the same general type as those in the proposed Finnish agreement. Each optional termination provision is required for legal or general policy reasons, without particular reference to Finland. These provisions represent an effort to [Page 77] harmonize the trade agreement program with the requirements of law and necessary domestic policies and constitute desirable safeguards against certain contingencies which it is hoped will not arise.
The Minister stated that he would inform his Government immediately by cable of our attitude with respect to the optional termination provisions.
- See Foreign Relations, 1935, vol. ii, pp. 18 ff. For text of the agreement with Canada, signed on November 15, 1935, see Executive Agreement Series No. 91, or 49 Stat. 3960.↩
- See Foreign Relations, 1935, vol. ii, pp. 739 ff. For text of the agreement with Sweden, signed on May 25, 1935, see Executive Agreement Series No. 79, or 49 Stat. 3755.↩