611.4731/352: Telegram
The Consul General at Sydney (Wilson) to the Secretary of State
[Received November 19—7:55 a.m.]
Referring to Department’s telegram of November 15, 4 p.m., I have just returned from Canberra where on Thursday evening I handed [Page 156] the aide-mémoire to the Prime Minister and had a conference with him and Page. Both expressed keen pleasure of a turn which would allow conversations to take place but equally keen disappointment at our insistence upon secrecy.
Late Friday afternoon I was called by Hodgson36 to the Prime Minister’s office where I received from Moore an uninitialed aide-mémoire. Only Hodgson and Moore were present. Moore stated that this aide-mémoire expressed the views of the Cabinet meeting then in session. The aide-mémoire opens: “The Australian Government welcomes the prospect of initiating an agreement with the United States and is prepared to explore the possibility of reaching a basis of agreement.” Then follows a wordy reference to past and present unsatisfactoriness of Australia’s trade balance as “overwhelmingly and increasingly in favor of the United States” and a necessity “to expand the volume and value of its exports to the United States.” (Does this indicate a return to trade diversion?)
The aide-mémoire closes with a paragraph expressing a genuine desire “to arrive at a basis for agreement with the least possible delay” and promises at the earliest opportunity an expression of views concerning the procedure proposed in my aide-mémoire.
My visit was pleasant and the reception accorded me cordial.
Press comments on United Kingdom and Canadian agreements have been very favorable. Page’s statement before the House of Representatives on the trade agreement between the United States and the United Kingdom provoked no unfavorable comment of serious character from the opposition.
- W. R. Hodgson, Australian Secretary of the Department of External Affairs.↩