121. Letter From the British Ambassador (Makins) to Secretary of State Dulles1
Washington, June 6,
1956.
My Dear Secretary Of State: I have been asked by
Selwyn Lloyd to give you the
enclosed statement of the reasons why Her Majesty’s Government in the United
Kingdom do not feel able to reimpose an embargo on copper wire exports to
the Soviet bloc.
Selwyn Lloyd asks me to add that he and
the Minister of Defence have given this matter their personal consideration
and that, after his conversation with you in Paris, he has gone most
carefully into the question with his colleagues.
Yours sincerely,
[Enclosure]
COPPER WIRE EXPORTS TO THE SOVIET BLOC
Her Majesty’s Government have given most careful consideration to the
view of the United States Government that special strategic importance
attaches to placing uncovered copper wire under embargo to the Soviet
bloc. For the reasons given below, however, they feel unable to share
the view of the United States Government on this question and they
accordingly regret that they cannot see their way to agreeing to such an
embargo.
- 2.
- There is not, Her Majesty’s Government believe, any significant
difference between the United States and United Kingdom estimates of
the supplies of copper available to the Bloc. The United Kingdom
estimate that production within the Soviet Bloc in 1955 totalled
some 500,000 tons and imports some 100,000 tons, of which 80,000
tons consisted of bare wire licensed by the United Kingdom and other
Western countries.
- 3.
- These figures admittedly show that the Bloc countries cannot meet
all their requirements from their own resources. But Her Majesty’s
Government have no grounds for thinking that the Bloc countries have
difficulty in meeting purely military requirements for copper,
whether in the form of wire or in other forms. Her Majesty’s
Government believe rather that these purely military requirements
[Page 366]
are comparatively
small and that, even if all imports were cut off, they could easily
be met out of the Bloc’s indigenous resources and would in fact be
met, to the detriment, if necessary, of the civilian economy. Her
Majesty’s Government recognise that Western exports of uncovered
wire may well be giving assistance to the Soviet Bloc’s programme of
industrialisation and electrification. They would not, however,
regard the hampering of the general industrial development of the
Bloc as one of the objectives of the agreed strategic export
controls.
- 4.
- Her Majesty’s Government would recall that particular attention
was given to copper wire in the talks between the United States and
the United Kingdom defence experts which were held in London last
year, to consider what commodities should be embargoed in order to
hamper the Bloc countries in improving the security and efficiency
of their communications. It was then agreed that certain specialised
types of communications cable and associated equipment were worthy
of embargo, and joint proposals to this effect were in due course
accepted by the other Western countries. After careful study,
however, Her Majesty’s Government for their part came to the
conclusion at that time that there was no case for an embargo on
copper wire in this context, since only a small proportion of the
Bloc’s copper supplies was likely to be needed for communications.
After renewed consideration of the problem, they are bound to say
that they still adhere to the view that copper wire does not merit
embargo in this context either.
