560.AL/12–2345: Telegram
The Ambassador in the United Kingdom ( Winant ) to the Secretary of State
[Received December 24—11:29 p.m.]
13452. Deptel 10858, December 18.28 Following is text of FonOff reply29 accepting invitation to preliminary meeting on trade and employment: [Page 1353]
“I have the honour to acknowledge the receipt of Your Excellency’s note No. 5191 of the 19th December30 referring to the document ‘Proposals for Consideration by an International Conference on Trade and Employment’, suggesting various measures which should be taken in preparation for the proposed conference and inviting His Majesty’s Govt, in the UK to appoint representatives to attend a preliminary meeting to be held in March or April of 1946 at a place to be determined.
- 2.
- I have to inform you in reply that His Majesty’s Govt share the view of the US Govt that there should be thorough preparation for the proposed international conference and would accordingly be glad to appoint representatives to attend the preliminary meeting for the purposes described in the third paragraph of your note.
- 3.
- On the subject of the date at which the proposed meeting should be held His Majesty’s Govt share, of course, the desire of your Govt that the contemplated discussions should lead to an early and satisfactory result. They are, however, in some doubt whether the thoroughgoing preparations necessary to ensure success can be completed in time for the meeting to be held in March or April. The trained staff available for these preparations has been under great strain and is limited in number. His Majesty’s Govt also feel that other govts invited to attend may be suffering from the same disadvantages. The representatives of certain govts will, moreover, have a considerable distance to travel. His Majesty’s Govt would therefore prefer to reserve for the time being their final expression of opinion on the actual date at which the meeting should take place and they suggest that the matter should be further considered in the light of the replies received from other govts.
- 4.
- His Majesty’s Govt take note of the steps, described in the fourth paragraph of your note, which it will be necessary for the US Govt to take in accordance with the provisions of the Trade Agreements Act and their customary practice there-under. They trust, however, that their immediate acceptance of the invitation to appoint representatives to attend the preliminary meeting will so far as they are concerned remove any obstacle to the immediate initiation of this procedure.
- 5.
- With regard to the proposed list of products which will be considered for the granting of trade concessions, His Majesty’s Govt desire to point out that in their view the discussions relating to tariffs and preferences could not be satisfactorily completed if they did not embrace Newfoundland, Southern Rhodesia, Burma and the non self-governing colonies and protectorates and the mandated territories the mandate for which is held by His Majesty’s Govt in the UK. They trust, therefore, that it will be possible to include in the list of products on which concessions to the UK will be considered, products which are of interest to the territories mentioned above, and that in view of the short time remaining before the publication of the list, the US Govt will be able to arrange for the publication of supplementary lists containing any items which may prove to have been omitted from the original list.”
Reservation regarding time of meeting has been discussed with Liesching31 and other Board of Trade officials and with Hall Patch32 of FonOff, all of whom are anxious that this reservation should not be regarded as indicating any disposition to neglect carrying out fully, letter and spirit of Washington undertakings. There is no disposition to question fact that March-April target date was part of those undertakings but after resurveying situation on return to London Liesching began to have some misgivings as to ability to complete preparatory work by that time. They unquestionably have difficult manpower problem and Embassy is satisfied pressure will be applied to complete work at earliest possible date.
With reference to last paragraph of note, Board of Trade has furnished following list of British colonies which are not fully self-governing, of British protectorates and protected states, and of mandated territories administered under the authority of His Majesty’s Govt in the UK of Great Britain and Northern Ireland:
Aden (colony and protectorate); Bahamas, Barbados, Basutoland, Bechuanaland protectorate, Bermuda, British Guiana, British Honduras, British Solomon Islands protectorate, Ceylon, Cyprus, Falkland Islands and dependencies, Fiji, Gambia (colony and protectorate), Gibraltar, Gilbert and Ellice Islands Colony; Gold Coast—(a) Colony, (b) Ashanti (c) Northern Territories (d) Togoland under British Mandate; Hong Kong, Jamaica (including Turks and Caicos Islands and the Cayman Islands), Kenya (colony and protectorate), Leeward Islands—Antigua, Montserrat, St. Christopher and Nevis, Virgin Islands; Malay States—(a) Federated Malay States—Negri Sembilan, Pahang, Perak, Selangor, (b) Unfederated Malay States—Johore, Kedah, Kelantan, Perlis, Trengganu and Burnei; Malta; Mauritius; New Hebrides; Nigeria—(a) Colony (b) protectorate (c) Cameroons under British Mandate; North Borneo, state of; Northern Rhodesia; Nyasaland protectorate; Palestine (excluding Trans-Jordan); St. Helena and dependencies; Sarawak; Seychelles; Sierra Leone (colony and protectorate); Somaliland protectorate; Straits Settlements; Swaziland; Tanganyika territory; Tonga; Trans-Jordan; Trinidad and Tobago; Uganda protectorate; Windward Islands—Dominica, Grenada, St. Lucia, St. Vincent; Zanzibar protectorate.