Office of the Historian

500.C1112/151: Telegram

The Consul at Geneva (Bucknell) to the Secretary of State

Geneva, September 7, 1937—3 p.m.
[Received September 7—1:10 p.m.]

269. Grady informs me as follows:

The Raw Materials Committee has adjourned having agreed upon a report34 which includes the reports drawn up by the two subcommittees in June slightly modifying, a long introduction and a brief statement of conclusions. Several special studies are annexed to the report including a technical analysis by Professor Hogbom.

Rosenblum insisted upon the insertion of a strong personal statement on the relationship of armament programs in certain countries to the problem. Mention is also made of the suggestion of certain members for the calling of a conference of the countries chiefly concerned as producers, consumers or colonial powers when conditions appear favorable.

The conclusion states that difficulties in regard to supply exist but are not serious and the Committee recommends that certain points relating to these difficulties [be] assiduously examined by the parties concerned. Difficulties in regard to payments are held to be of vastly greater importance but the Committee found itself unable to hold out hope for their easy solution. The report concludes as follows: [Page 820]

“There is no doubt that there is an inequality in the distribution of raw materials, and the problem of commercial access can only be solved by a restoration of international exchange on the widest basis. The formulation of such a solution, involving as it does political, financial and economic factors, is far beyond the competence of this Committee, but the Committee is anxious to see that their deliberations should lead to practical results, and suggests that the report should be referred to the Financial and Economic Committees of the League with a view to their following up the various suggestions made in it, so that practical effect may be given to them as and when circumstances permit.”

Bucknell
  1. League of Nations, Report of the Committee for the Study of the Problem of Raw Materials, September 8, 1937 (Official No.: A.27.1937.II.B.).↩