611.4131/230

Memorandum by the Assistant Secretary of State (Sayre)

After dinner at the Canadian Legation on Friday night, January twenty-ninth, I had a short, very personal conversation with Sir Herbert Marler23 about the possibility of our negotiating a trade agreement with Great Britain. We spoke in a most friendly and personal way and Sir Herbert Marler told me that if there was anything at all which he could do to be of service he would like to do so.

This morning he called me on the telephone in reference to our conversation of Friday night. He said that he was most anxious to help us in any way possible. He did not ask formally to come in to have a conversation with me because that might cause embarrassment to me if questions arose concerning the British negotiations. He wanted me to know, however, that he was in entire sympathy with our program for the trade liberalization of the world and that he would stand ready to be of assistance to us in any way possible should the occasion arise. I replied that I warmly appreciated what he had said and that I would be glad to avail myself of his kindness if the occasion should arise.

In the course of our talk, I also intimated that I felt it might be helpful if either the Canadian or the British Government should reveal to us the text of the new Anglo-Canadian trade agreement before its terms were definitively settled and it was signed; for I said that I feared the agreement might present a stone wall which would prevent further progress on our trade agreements program.

F[rancis] B. S[ayre]
  1. Canadian Minister in the United States.