611.4131/400: Telegram
The Ambassador in the United Kingdom (Bingham) to the Secretary of State
[Received October 29—5:45 p.m.]
678. My 671, October 27, 5 p.m. Brown today stated that the Cabinet yesterday afternoon had approved the new British proposals in reply to our proposed Schedule One. The Government is informing the Dominions of these offers by “Prime Minister to Prime Minister telegrams” in which Chamberlain will emphasize the time element and will explain that these proposals, which constitute the British position, will be made in the expectation of Dominion cooperation. He will also stress the importance of an Anglo-American agreement. The proposals will not be presented to the State Department before next week, which will allow sufficient time for the Dominions, if they see fit, to comment or protest.
When asked whether he thought the British offers would be substantial enough to satisfy us that a basis for agreement existed, he [Page 77] ruefully replied that he was afraid not entirely. He said that the offers were the best that could be made at the present stage.
When asked if they represented the maximum we could expect, he merely said that of course in negotiations nothing is final until the agreement is signed, giving the implication that some further concessions were not impossible at a later stage. At the same time he intimated that considerable difficulty had been experienced in getting some members of the Cabinet to agree to these proposals since they feared the opposition of special interests in Parliament.
Brown reiterated his distrust of simultaneous negotiations with Britain and all the Dominions, fearing that the Canadians and Australians working in conjunction would make demands upon Great Britain of such a nature that it would be practically impossible to grant them. He, however, is instructing Chalkley to inform you that if you desire simultaneous negotiations the British are nevertheless ready to go ahead on that basis. Referring to my 656, October 21, 4 p.m.,84 Stirling stated today it was practically certain he would sail for the United States on November 3 per S. S. Aquitania.
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