611.11B31/11–645
The Secretary of State to Mr. Harry B. Hawes 77
My Dear Harry: Thank you very much for your helpful letter of November 678 in which you urged speedy action on the question of U.S.-Philippine trade relations.
I am sure that you will be glad to know that as a result of a recent conference with the President79 a formula for readjustment of our trade relations with the Philippines has been worked out which is acceptable to the Departments of the Government most concerned. Following the White House conference Representative C. Jasper Bell, Chairman of the House Committee on Insular Affairs redrafted his bill in accordance with the formula agreed to for an eight-year period of free trade to be followed by twenty-five years of gradually declining preferences. The Committee on Ways and Means is currently studying the new bill.80 On November 15 a statement representing the views of the Department of State on the bill was submitted to that Committee.81 In this statement the Department indicated its acceptance of the broad trade program set forth in the bill.
I am sure that you will understand the difficulties which were involved in working out a solution to the problem of readjusting trade [Page 1220] relations with the Philippines which would be acceptable to all concerned and would at the same time be consistent with Philippine independence, in accord with our commercial policy, and based upon full consideration of the tremendous problems which the Filipinos now face in rebuilding their economy.
We hope that Congress will take speedy action. I am quite certain that Chairman Doughton of the Ways and Means Committee and Senator Tydings, Chairman of the Senate Committee on Territories and Insular Affairs, both feel that this matter is extremely urgent and that it should be acted upon as quickly as possible.
Thank you again for sharing your views on this problem with me.
Sincerely yours,
- Senator from Missouri, December 1926 to February 1933; an author of the Philippine Independence Act of January 17, 1933.↩
- Not printed; for text, see the Philippine Trade Act of 195, p. 187.↩
- On November 13, 1945, attended by the Secretary of State, Assistant Secretary of State Clayton, Paul V. McNutt, United States High Commissioner to the Philippine Islands, Senator Tydings, Chairman C. Jasper Bell of the House Committee on Insular Affairs, and Abe Fortas, Under Secretary of the Interior.↩
- H.R. 4676; for text, see the Philippine Trade Act of 1945, p. 6. For comments by the Department of State on this measure and a subsequent modified version, H.R. 5185, see ibid., pp. 266–279.↩
- Ibid., p. 270.↩