841.24/6–3044: Telegram
The Secretary of State to the Ambassador in the United Kingdom (Winant)
5473. Although the British, according to your 5171 of June 30 and your 4956 of June 22, emphasize the purely transitional nature of their bulk food purchases, the contracts obviously may extend far into the post-hostilities period and tend to build up vested interests. We recognize the uncertainties facing post-war international trade and the serious practical difficulties which would handicap an attempt on the part of either of our countries, or of various others, to restore trade immediately after hostilities completely to commercial channels. However, we feel that a great effort should be made by all countries which find such bulk purchases indispensable as a transitional [Page 55] measure to keep the contract period as short as possible and to include therein, to the greatest practicable extent, all countries that have supplied the purchasing country with such products in the past or appear likely to be able to do so on a competitive basis in the future.
To do otherwise would in our opinion inevitably impede the achievement of a regime of multilateral trade along as liberal lines as contemplated in last fall’s Article VII talks and would seem of doubtful compatibility with the following statement in the first paragraph of the introductory note on commercial policy presented by the British at the beginning of those talks: “While, during the transitional period immediately after the war when we are seeking to restore our balance of trade, we may have to retain some special measures of control, we hope that we and other countries will be able to emerge from this stage without undue delay.”
Our earnest hope is that both our Governments, faced with a key responsibility for the pattern of post-war world trade, will lean over backward to be sure that measures they adopt in the first instance to ease the transition from war conditions are not of a character which will unnecessarily prejudice the attainment of our joint long-run aims.
This country too has perplexing transitional problems. The British should not consider it as a petty hint of retaliation if we point out the responsibility which this Government may face in the event that British bulk purchases devoted primarily or exclusively to Empire countries should threaten to contribute to post-war depression in the raw material export markets of certain countries, particularly smaller countries, which markets have been greatly enlarged by our war demands. This Government hopes that private trading may take care of the needs of these markets. But if it fails to do so the pressure on this Government to direct some of the purchasing power of the United States toward such countries, possibly at the expense of British countries, will inevitably be great.
Please discuss the matter with appropriate authorities in the foregoing sense and advise us promptly of their reactions.