611.4731/103: Telegram
The Consul General at Sydney (Caldwell) to the Secretary of State
[Received May 16—11:10 a.m.]
Department’s telegram May 15, 6 p.m., sentence in Department’s telegram May 5, 2 p.m., was correctly received and repeated in my telegram of May 10, 5 p.m.
[Page 841]The question is whether damage to American transportation interests is not caused by Australian Customs Act of 190114 rather than by Canadian agreement of 1931. It would seem that diversion of freight from American to Canadian lines was due to provisions of Customs Act and occurred prior to and irrespective of Canadian agreement; that Canadian agreement merely made it no longer advantageous for Canada to divert some of her freight to American lines, our loss on this account being relatively unimportant.