Office of the Historian

681.006/37: Telegram

The Ambassador in the United Kingdom (Bingham) to the Secretary of State

London, January 16, 1936—6 p.m.
[Received January 16—3:30 p.m.]

22. Foreign Office has given the Embassy the following information with the request that it be kept strictly confidential.

The British Government has received a note from the French Government stating in somewhat vague terms that it is considering the establishment of a regime of quotas in French Morocco to compensate for losses which will be incurred on the imposition of sanctions2 in that zone of the protectorate. The note specifically mentions cotton, woolen and silk textiles and automobiles.

The Foreign Office has replied requesting more precise information as regards the quotas and basis upon which they will be calculated.

As regards its views on the subject, the Foreign Office made the following informal observations to the Embassy:

(1)
The British Government has no objection to the imposition of sanctions in French Morocco and when announced will issue appropriate regulations.
(2)
As regards quotas, should the reply of the French Government make proposals in accordance with the Anglo-French exchange of notes of January 29, 1935,3 the Foreign Office pointed out that the British Government would probably not object. In this connection the Foreign Office added that a quota on woolen textiles was not covered by the above-mentioned exchange of notes.
(3)
While the French note was not explicit, the Foreign Office assumes that the French Government will offer to other interested governments portions of the trade enjoyed by Italy in return for consent to the establishment of quotas and/or in return for promises of increased purchases of Moroccan products.
(4)
Although as stated above the attitude of the British Government to the French proposal will depend to some extent on the answer [Page 413] to further inquiries which they are making in Paris, the Foreign Office would welcome a reply to the memorandum of the British Embassy at Washington, dated September 18 last.4

Bingham
  1. Against Italy. For correspondence regarding the Ethiopian-Italian conflict, see pp. 34 ff.↩
  2. See telegram No. 41, January 30, 1935, 5 p.m., from the Chargé in the United Kingdom, Foreign Relations, 1935, vol. i, p. 963.↩
  3. Foreign Relations, 1935, vol. i, p. 994.↩