600.0031 World Program/200

Draft Memorandum by the Belgian Prime Minister (Van Zeeland)20

[Translation]21

The Franco-Anglo-American declaration of September 25, 1936,22 to which Belgium, the Netherlands, and Switzerland adhered, affirmed, in paragraph one, the desire of the signatory powers “to safeguard peace, to foster those conditions which will best contribute to the restoration of order in international economic relations and to pursue a policy which will tend to promote prosperity in the world and to improve the standard of living of peoples”.

Moreover, the declaration noted the importance which the signatory powers attached to the undertaking of some action for the progressive attenuation, with a view to their abolition, of the existing regimes of quotas and of exchange control.

It was to give practical effect to the desire expressed in the preceding paragraph, that the British and the French Governments have been kind enough to ask me to undertake the inquiry to which I have devoted myself in the course of recent months.

It appears to me that the moment has come, before formulating my conclusions, to have an exchange of official views with the Representatives of these two Governments, with whom I should like to associate, if possible, a Representative of the United States.

This exchange of views would afford a suitable opportunity to examine, in comparing the opinions of the three great Powers which took the initiative in the declaration of September 25, 1936, and in the light of the data which I gathered in the course of my investigation, the concrete forms which further action might assume.

It would not be necessary that the persons who would be called to meet together have powers of decision, but they ought to enjoy the full confidence of their Governments and to be in close touch with them.

Their task would be chiefly to draw up the program for further exchanges of views in which Representatives of their Governments might join.

This program would look to a series of measures suitable of execution, extending into the whole field of commercial policy.

The conversation which I have had recently at Washington led me to think that it is desirable and, under certain conditions, that it [Page 685] would be possible to associate in the exchanges of views which have just been defined a Representative of the Government of the United States, a co-signatory of the declaration of September 25.

This participation of an American delegate would depend, however, upon the acceptance by the other countries of certain general principles to which the Government of the United States is particularly attached, and it may be summarized as follows:

The necessity of fostering the maintenance of peace by practicing a broad international collaboration, and the utility, toward this end, of keeping in the foreground of popular opinion the problem raised by the organization of international relations;

The progressive eliminating of obstacles to international exchanges of whatever nature, especially quota systems and exchange control;

The abolition or attenuation of discriminatory systems, and the return to a regime of economic agreements concluded on the principle of the greatest possible equality between the different interested parties.

  1. Text of communication to the British and French Governments; copy transmitted to the Department by the Ambassador in Belgium in his despatch No. 9, August 12; received August 26.
  2. Translation supplied by the editors.
  3. Foreign Relations, 1936, vol. i, p. 560.