811.24 Raw Materials/419: Telegram
The Secretary of State to the Ambassador in the United Kingdom (Kennedy)
1424. Department’s 1259, October 20, 8 p.m.55 In view of the provisions of the Neutrality Act of 1939, approved November 4,56 this [Page 266] Government is now in a position to agree formally to an adjustment of transportation arrangements under article 6 of the agreement, this Government relinquishing the right of American ships to participate in carrying the cotton and the British Government relinquishing the right of British ships to participate in carrying the rubber. Please arrange the necessary exchange of communications, clearing with the Department before they are signed.58
[There was some discussion between American and British officials in April and May 1940, with respect to an agreement for a further exchange of rubber for American agricultural products. In telegram No. 888, May 17, 1940 (811.24 Raw Materials/956b), the Ambassador in the United Kingdom was informed that “The Department is not yet in a position to authorize you to negotiate a further agreement involving the exchange of rubber for American agricultural products…” There is no record in the files of further proposals along this line. It had been suggested in telegram No. 875, May 16, 1940 (811.24 Raw Materials/944b), that the need for rubber could be met by arrangements of the rubber manufacturing industry.]
- Not printed.↩
- 54 Stat 4.↩
- As early as September 18, the British Board of Trade had offered to renounce the right of British ships to carry half the rubber if the United States would renounce the right to carry half the cotton. Proposals for an exchange of notes to this effect continued under discussion until March 1940, but without agreement as to form. No correspondence on the subject beyond that time has been found in the files of the Department.↩