811.24 Raw Materials/946: Telegram
The Ambassador in the United Kingdom (Kennedy) to the Secretary of State
[Received May 17—12:50 p.m.]
1248. The substance of your 875 of May 16 has been conveyed to the Colonial Office which immediately called a meeting of the British Government Departments concerned, following which the Embassy [Page 270] has been requested to send representative to a meeting to be held at the Colonial Office at 12 noon tomorrow May 18, at which such representatives of the Committee as Hay and Miller34 will be present. Therefore it is necessary for the Embassy to receive in advance of that time any further instructions. Can I take it that your 875 constitutes a specific commitment, for instance as indicated in its second sentence.
My own feeling is that given the time element and the tide of events the discussion and conclusion in the near future of a complicated exchange of commodities arrangement is impracticable and that in effect our offer should be to ask the British Government—which to some extent in practice also means the International Rubber Regulation Committee—to [apparent omission] on the passage of appropriations which will permit of the implementation of the second sentence of your 875. However, people like Hay and Miller will immediately ask who will come in the moment that the Committee announces its quota releases and buy and what will they buy as regards grades and to what extent. If America is not in a position to immediately absorb the offerings of futures are we to ask the British Government to authorize its rubber buyer to act on our behalf. Not only are the producers on the Committee interested in the price cum supply situation but the British Treasury in terms of foreign exchange assets.
- H. Eric Miller, member of Malayan delegation on the International Rubber Regulation Committee.↩