Office of the Historian

641.116 Fruit/23: Telegram

The Secretary of State to the Ambassador in the United Kingdom (Kennedy)

Washington, October 14, 1939—2 p.m.

1223. Your 1946, October 6, 1 p.m.12 I think that your general attitude should be one of deep concern over any measure which affects trade in American products to the extent which you apprehend for raisins,13 particularly if they are trade agreement14 items and if the final effect could be such as (1) loss of identity and good will of brands; (2) change over of public taste from established American brands to other brands; (3) inability to restore the normal flow of trade in American products after the war.

You should also express concern at other measures which cause immediate or permanent trade losses, such as the fixing of the domestic price of lard at a figure so low as to render American sales unprofitable. This lard question is particularly disturbing to our Department of Agriculture.

I think the British Government should be brought to realize that, since we are already under pressure by domestic producers to revise or terminate the agreement under the exchange clause, and since pressure from our exporters will certainly follow reduction or disappearance of the benefits which they expected to receive under the agreement, we will be faced with a difficult domestic situation.

Hull
  1. Not printed.↩
  2. The Sun Maid Raisin Growers had complained to the Embassy of regulations against shipping raisins in packages, thus destroying the valuable Sun Maid trade-mark and good will.↩
  3. For correspondence on the trade agreement between the United States and the United Kingdom, signed November 17, 1938, see Foreign Relations, 1938, vol. ii, pp. 1 ff; for text of agreement, see Department of State Executive Agreement Series No. 164, or 54 Stat. 1897.↩