561.321D1 Advisory Committee/103
Memorandum of Conversation, by the Chief of the Division of Commercial Policy and Agreements (Hawkins)
Mr. Mahoney called today to clarify certain formal and procedural questions connected with the proposed cotton agreement between the [Page 582] United States, Brazil and Canada. These questions are set forth in the attached telegram which he had received from Ottawa.15 I undertook to give him a definite answer to these questions before the end of the day.
Mr. Mahoney said that the Canadian Government had indicated its willingness to enter into the agreement, but that before signature officials would be sent to Washington, it would be necessary to clear up certain questions in regard to the manner in which the agreement would be administered.
I took the occasion to emphasize to Mr. Mahoney the attitude of this Government in regard to the proposed agreement along the lines which I discussed with Mr. Wheeler of the Department of Agriculture yesterday and with which he agreed; namely, that it is not our purpose to urge the Canadian Government to enter into this agreement unless the Canadian Government is perfectly clear in its mind that to do so would be in the Canadian interest; that if responsible Canadian officials felt any doubts or had any mental reservations in regard to the manner in which Canadian interests would be affected, we hoped that they would say so, and that unless these could be cleared up we would not urge them to sign the agreement. Mr. Mahoney replied that he had understood this to be our attitude but that he would inform his Government again explicitly to this effect.
- Telegram No. 66, February 26, not printed; it contained inquiries regarding necessity for full powers for signature and provisions for ratification and coming into force of the agreement.↩