800.6176/12–1444
The Director of the Office of Economic Affairs (Haley) to the Second Secretary of the British Ministry of Supply (Franks)
My Dear Franks: Your letter of December 14, relating to the admission of the French to the Rubber Study Group expresses pretty well my own views on this matter.
We too felt during the August rubber talks that it might well become impossible and undesirable to limit the Group to the three Governments for any extended period of time. However it does appear to us that it would be unwise to expand the Group until after we have had at least one more meeting of the present Group.
While I recognize that France has perhaps a stronger case for inclusion than does any other single country yet her inclusion would open the field for demands from many others. Furthermore, our technical people feel that the 200,000 ton liberation stocks figure for French Indo-China is somewhat optimistic; so that argument loses some of its force. Consequently we have regretfully decided that we cannot look with favor on the inclusion of the French in the Rubber Study Group at this time. In addition since all of the arrangements [Page 988] for the forthcoming meeting have been based on the present membership it would be very difficult at this late date to include the French. Would it not be possible to explain to them that one of the items on the agenda will be the question of expanding the Group to include other interested governments and further to point out that should such expansion be considered desirable France would probably be one of the first countries to be added?
We are all looking forward to seeing you again late in January and it is my hope that the forthcoming meeting will be as successful as was the previous meeting when your Government was the host.
Sincerely yours,