611.4131/329
Memorandum by the Secretary of State
The British Ambassador called, accompanied by two trade experts,. Mr. Stirling63 and Mr. Chalkley. The British Ambassador had “a very long face” as he launched into a statement to the effect that the British Government finds itself confronted with serious difficulties in its desire to go forward with a suitable trade agreement undertaking with the United States; that his Government has contractual trade relations with the Dominions; that the Dominions are very difficult to deal with in relaxing and liberalizing this situation; that the difficulties are serious. He then said that one helpful step would be for his Government to return to the Dominion governments certain trade concessions which they had given to the British Government as this would enable the Dominions to have more leeway in making trade agreements with other nations of the world. I inquired if this was construed to require the United States, for example, to bargain and pay not once but twice. They replied that it did not.
I then remarked that the Dominions in all reason should not be so difficult to deal with in respect to their Ottawa Empire concessions by the British Government, for the reason the fact is notorious that the Dominions, especially Canada, insisted upon and secured the lion’s share while the United Kingdom itself had to be content with a wholly inadequate list of concessions in return; that in these circumstances, assuming that the Dominion statesmen are for a broad liberal program such as this Government is supporting, there should be no real difficulty or hesitation on the part of the Dominions to somewhat liberalize their concessions from the British Government, although I said that I was not passing on that matter so much as I was calling attention to the logic which the uncontroverted facts suggest. I then stated that the Finance Minister of Australia was in to see me some days ago64 and, as with his microscope he began to look about, he [Page 47] seemed to be seriously concerned to visualize the wholly minor trade items and other phases of the big economic objective rather than the latter itself; that in that connection this Government last year, in the face of exasperating embargoes wholly without bases from the standpoint of fair dealing and fair play, proceeded to buy vast quantities of wool and certain other products from Australia, making a favorable trade balance to that country and thus illustrating the broad attitude that the various governments must assume and practice if they are to get anywhere in economic restoration.
The British Ambassador then said that the United Kingdom was not without its serious difficulties at home, for the reason that the proposed trade agreement would require the removal of much of the protection which some of the home industries are now enjoying. I said that I was well aware of that situation, but I would be glad if the Ambassador would transmit to his Government the experience of the Government of the United States in this regard; that three years ago apparently 90% of the American people were blindly and solidly for embargo tariff protection; that most statesmen said it would be foolish, as well as futile, to attempt to carry forward a broad trade agreements and trade restoration program such as some of us were proposing; that we persisted, however, with the result that today, while various groups are selfishly for embargo protection, the country as a whole is definitely behind our trade agreements program. The Ambassador readily agreed that from his personal knowledge this was what took place.
I then remarked that for the benefit of any of our Dominion friends I could say that when I discussed this broad economic and peace objective with high officials of other governments in Europe they as a rule immediately brought up the British Empire and inquired of me how this movement could go forward, satisfactorily at least, while the British Empire was moving backward further towards economic autarchy instead of forward in support of economic liberalism. I added that when the program we took to and brought back from Buenos Aires for general peace and economic rehabilitation is suggested to some of the important nations on the Continent as the only substitute for present practices and policies of armament races and narrow trouble-making trade methods, which today are responsible for a state of turbulence, threatened violence, and more or less of a constant uproar throughout Europe, we have the British Empire and its attitude thrown in our faces.
The Ambassador finally said that the governments of the United Kingdom and of the Dominions are each favorable to our program and desirous of cooperating to carry it out. I expressed my interest [Page 48] and appreciation but emphasized the view that the great danger is that there will be excessive discussions and controversies about purely minor phases of the program with the result that the matter may be delayed until it is too late.