681.003/195: Telegram
The Acting Secretary of State to the Ambassador in France (Straus)
290. Your 599, July 17, 2 p.m. You may orally inform the Minister for Foreign Affairs that this Government will be pleased to give appropriate consideration to the Ministry’s note of July 15, 1935, upon its receipt, and to any alternative proposals which may be in keeping with full commercial equality in Morocco.
[Page 993]You may also state that a careful study of the French note of May 6, 1935, has not caused this Government to change its opinion that the plan proposed by the French, involving a system of quotas, would be contrary to the principle of commercial equality and out of harmony with the program which this Government is promoting with the view of restoring world trade by the removal of trade barriers. Our position is not based solely on juridical grounds, but also on the practical viewpoint of the importance of maintaining the equality of opportunity for commercial interchange, with freedom from trade restrictions.
In reply to the suggestion in paragraph 3 of your telegram, that no treaty power has apparently yet definitely rejected the proposed reform, it is this Government’s understanding that the Netherland Government is definitely opposed, Belgium has indicated opposition, Spain has not accepted and Italy has made definite reservations.