811.24 Raw Materials/449: Telegram
The Secretary of State to the Chargé in the United Kingdom (Johnson)
1545. Your 2472, November 28, 5 p.m., numbered paragraph (4) (b). You may inform Campbell or other interested officials that this Government’s export statistics show that total shipments of rubber to European countries (including Soviet Russia) for September, October, and the greater part of November were less than 6,500 tons. Approximately 5,000 tons of this amount was destined for Soviet Russia, and it is understood from the trade that it went in two shipments across the Pacific to Vladivostok. The trade also has information that the purchases for the Amtorg Corporation totaled 10,000 tons but that no arrangements have been made for shipment of the remaining 5,000 tons.
The trade also reported that all of the Amtorg purchases and a considerable proportion of all other European purchases were made through the New York branch of Hecht, Levis, and Kahn, a British concern. Viles brought this fact to the attention of Sir John Campbell, and the information also came to the attention of the British Embassy at Washington, resulting in a termination of such business by this company.
From the first, most if not all of the American rubber trading companies in New York opposed the activities of Hecht, Levis, and Kahn and themselves refused to do export business. The Department has been informed by the Rubber Manufacturers Association and the Rubber Trade Association that no new export orders have been taken since the Government’s statements on the subject late in September and early in October and that the few shipments made since that time were merely on contracts previously drawn.