800.6176/483½
The Commercial Secretary of the British Embassy (Jopson) to the Director of the Office of Economic Affairs (Hawkins)
Dear Harry: You will remember that Mr. Haley and Mr. Phillips came to see me on the 17th [15th] instant with a message that the State Department feared that our proposal to arrange for a further prolongation of the old Rubber Agreement beyond April 30th, in order to avoid legal difficulties arising from the custody of records and funds, might serve to confirm in the minds of the U.S. rubber industry the suspicion that the proposed new Committee would really be the old one in disguise. Mr. Haley and Mr. Phillips asked whether, to allay these suspicions, it might be possible for the old Agreement to be wound up so that there would be a hiatus between its abolition and the creation of a new international body.
I telegraphed to the Foreign Office in this sense, and have now received a reply saying that the non-renewal of the old Agreement would be likely to produce a situation in the United Kingdom by no means free of difficulty. We, too, have our industry to consider: the [Page 963] latter is nervous as to its future and its co-operation is obviously essential, not only in connection with any future international agreement, but also with reconstruction programmes in the Far East. The Foreign Office are anxious to avoid friction both with the industry and with the old Committee, who have so far acquiesced, with a reasonable degree of patience, in the arrangements for their own ultimate demise. In point of fact, owing to the narrow margin of time, the Foreign Office have already been obliged to convey to the Committee a provisional intimation of an intention to prolong the old Agreement for the reasons stated in my letter of April 11th.20 Notwithstanding the above considerations, the Foreign Office appreciate the possible psychological advantage to you, in your current negotiations with your own industry, of the old Agreement being wound up and for a clear hiatus to occur before a new international body is set up. The Secretary of State for the Colonies is therefore arranging to see members of the International Rubber Regulation Committee and representatives of the producing industry in order to explain that in all the circumstances, the British Government feel it best to allow the old Agreement to expire. In so doing, however, he will necessarily have to repeat the promise made last summer by the Minister of Production that in due course the British Government will see that a new Committee takes its place. Though it will not be necessary for any public statement in such a form to be issued, it is felt essential, as justification for the abolition of the old Committee, that at least some public reference should be made to progress having been made in the negotiations. I am asked to inform you of this fact, and to enquire whether you see any objection to the issue in London of a brief communiqué regarding the expiration of the old Agreement incorporating the following statement:—
“It remains the intention of the signatory Governments to try to secure the establishment of a Committee on a wider basis but without any regulatory powers, and negotiations to that end are making satisfactory progress.”
I am also asked to emphasise that if the negotiations for the inclusion of the U.S. in the new Agreement should prove abortive, the failure to reach an agreement must not in any way debar the British Government from joining with other interested Governments in forming a new Committee on the lines previously proposed.
Yours sincerely,
- Not found in Department files.↩