811.24 Raw Materials/182: Telegram
The Secretary of State to the Ambassador in the United Kingdom (Kennedy)
464. Your 864, June 20, midnight. Every effort has been made to give careful study to the draft agreement and the appended minutes. I wish to express my admiration of the skill with which you have conducted this negotiation and to thank you for your great effort in the matter.
The text you submit and the accompanying minutes have been carefully studied in the Department and I am prepared to recommend immediate signature. However, I believe it essential to clear the whole agreement in its final form with the President, and also to secure the assent of the Secretary of Agriculture to the new form of the minute explanatory of the compensation arrangement in regard to cotton. Unfortunately, I can reach neither tonight. I will discuss this subject with them as early as possible in the morning, and upon securing their judgment will immediately telephone you.
On my own account, I would like to urge (1) the omission of the last sentence in the minute on 2 (c). This appears to me to weaken the whole force of the minute and also to be quite unnecessary.
I also suggest (2) that, if the British authorities are willing to consider it, it would be mutually beneficial to provide, as part of the minute dealing with paragraph 7, that in the event of any difference of opinion concerning the matter of compensation, arbitration should be employed. But I would not insist on such an addition.
[Page 257]I also think (3) that it is advisable, in order to avoid possible misunderstanding, definitely to assure that the British Government agree that, if it should be deemed by us either necessary or advisable to submit the minutes to the Senate, either in whole or in part, as part of the treaty, we should be free to do so.44
[For text of the Agreement Between the United States and the United Kingdom for the Exchange of Cotton and Rubber, signed at London June 23, 1939, and notes exchanged August 25, 1939, putting the agreement into effect on that date, see Department of State Treaty Series No. 947, or 54 Stat. 1411.]
- The changes in the minutes suggested by the Secretary of State were agreed to by the British, and both the agreement and minutes were signed June 23, 1939.↩