811.24 Raw Materials/370: Telegram
The Minister in the Netherlands (Gordon) to the Secretary of State
[Received October 17—3:43 p.m.]
226. European press referring to the President’s recent appeal to American importers to refrain from re-exporting raw materials which we need for strategic reserves (Radio Bulletin No. 277 [227])44 reports that as a result of this appeal the Rubber Manufacturers’ Association last week questioned all rubber dealers and brokers as to the amount of rubber exported to Europe disclosing the fact that in September alone some 10,000 tons of rubber was re-exported most of it supposedly going to Sweden and Russia (London Embassy’s 1793, September 23, 3 p.m. to the Department45). I presume that such re-export is a new departure.
Anticipating reproaches on this score, probably when we next ask for an increase in rubber releases, it would seem to me that an adequate answer would be to point out that as a result of the President’s appeal the Rubber Association has requested its members to refrain from such re-export and that the President’s appeal has been reinforced by the joint statement of the Acting Secretary of the Navy and Assistant Secretary of War (Radio Bulletin No. 242).46 For use in the contingency above mentioned, however, if the Department has any further observations it wishes advanced or could inform me that since September such re-exports have ceased I should be glad to be so instructed.