611.4731/351a: Telegram
The Secretary of State to the Consul General at Sydney (Wilson)
Please proceed to Canberra at once and hand to the Prime Minister, or in his absence to Sir Earle Page “for the Prime Minister” the following Aide-Mémoire marked strictly confidential.
“Now that negotiations leading to the United States–United Kingdom Trade Agreement have been completed, the American Government, as indicated to the Honorable Sir Earle Page at Washington last summer, looks hopefully to the prospect of negotiating a trade agreement with Australia.
“The American Government assumes that the Australian Government agrees that whereas conversations should be started without delay, no public announcement of ‘intention to negotiate’ should be made until a basis of agreement has been found. By this is meant a meeting of minds on the most important concessions on both sides indispensable to the conclusion of a comprehensive agreement. It would be understood, of course, that whatever proposals might be put forward at this stage must be subject to such eventual modifications as might be rendered necessary as the result of the introduction of new evidence at public hearings.
“It is anticipated that the Australian Government also is prepared to engage in conversations to find a basis of agreement without delay. As a matter of fact, considerable preparatory work has already been done in the course of informal talks during the past 2 or 3 months between Mr. L. R. Macgregor35 and certain technical experts of the United States. These talks have unquestionably been productive of better mutual understanding of the difficulties still confronting the two Governments. It is believed that these confidential talks might usefully be formalized and intensified, and that as progress is made they might perhaps be expanded by the addition of other experts. It is the American Government’s belief that the continuation of such conversations might be the most effective method of finding a basis of agreement as denned above. As soon as such a basis is found, the American Government is ready to join with the Australian Government in making public announcement of ‘intention to negotiate.’
“The American Government would welcome an indication from the Australian Government as to whether the procedure suggested meets with the approval of the Commonwealth Government and to invite any comments which it may care to make.”
- Australian Trade Commissioner at New York City.↩