860F.4061 Motion Pictures/128: Telegram
The Minister in Czechoslovakia (Carr) to the Secretary of State
[Received April 11—2:04 p.m.]
66. From Culbertson. I have suggested to the Czech authorities that film agreement take the form of exchange of notes and I have this morning submitted draft of such note to the Foreign Office. The note has 14 paragraphs providing for: a binding or reduction of existing duties, fees and charges, reductions being in present license fee from 20,000 to 15,000 crowns and for dubbed versions from 12,000 to 6,000; exemption from internal taxes in excess of those payable on Czech films; treatment in respect to distribution and exhibition equal to Czech film and binding of present requirement that a fixed number of Czech films be shown in Czech theatres; no quota; an outline of administrative procedure through which a film must pass in order to get on to the Czech market; no necessity to superimpose Czech titles until after screening and censorship; permission to dub in Czech either in the United States or in Czechoslovakia; no obligation to produce films in Czechoslovakia and no obligation to include Czech subject matter in news reels; abolition of import permits for advertising material; permission for American companies to establish and maintain branch firms in Czechoslovakia and no restriction on film prints originating in the United States; no censorship of films on the ground of artistic or technical execution; no limitation on the distribution and sale in Czechoslovakia of dubbed version films; the agreement to become operative on a day to be decided upon and to continue in force until denounced by either country on 6 months’ notice.
[Page 233]The exchange of notes would be signed by Mr. Carr and the appropriate Czech authority. There are one or two points included in the foregoing outline which may not be accepted by the Czech authorities. However, the major points involved have already been accepted and I feel that the film interests should be satisfied.
Please instruct whether I should now submit exact text to the Department and whether the agreement and procedure as outlined are satisfactory. [Culbertson.]