Office of the Historian

811.24 Raw Materials/69: Telegram

The Minister in the Netherlands (Gordon) to the Secretary of State

The Hague, April 12, 1939—3 p.m.
[Received April 12—12:01 p.m.]

37. The first Dutch press comment (in this morning’s Rotterdam Courant) concerning the reported Byrnes proposal1 for exchange of our surplus grain and cotton against rubber and tin concludes as follows in translation:

“What many have for a long time thought they saw coming, namely the disappearance of free capitalistic trade, now threatens to become a reality.”

Gordon
  1. James F. Byrnes, Senator from South Carolina; for text of Senator Byrnes’ proposal, see Department of State, Press Releases, April 15, 1939, p. 297.↩