867.512/94
The High Commissioner at Constantinople
(Bristol)
to the Secretary of
State
Constantinople, November 30,
1921.
[Received December 16.]
No. 572
Sir: I have the honor to enclose herewith a
copy of an identic Note which I have today addressed to each of the
Allied High Commissioners on the subject of the Consumption Taxes.
I have [etc.]
[Enclosure]
The American High
Commissioner at Constantinople to the Allied High Commissioners31
[Constantinople,] November 30, 1921.
Excellency: As Your Excellency is no doubt
aware the question of the Consumption Taxes was once more examined
by the Advisory Trade Committee at its meeting of November 23.
Unfortunately, the Committee was unable to reach an agreement and
was therefore compelled to record the existence of an absolute impasse between the Allied and American
points of view with respect to these taxes. Such being the case, I
understand that the question will engage the attention of the Allied
High Commissioners at their meeting of this week. I should be
grateful, therefore, if their Excellencies, the Allied High
Commissioners, would be good enough to communicate to me a definite
statement of their views concerning the Consumption
[Page 916]
Taxes, having in mind particularly the
character of the instructions received by me from my government and
also the situation disclosed by the following figures taken from
Table F of the annexes to the Provisional Committee of Control’s
letter of November 7, 1921 to the Allied High Commissioners:
percentage of consumption taxes
paid on merchandise from each of the principal allied and
associated countries
| America |
28.49 |
| France |
14.21 |
| Italy |
9.13 |
| England |
2.66 |
I hesitate to inform my government that the Representatives of the
Allies at Constantinople insist upon the continuance of the
discrimination against American goods demonstrated by the above
figures and that in their judgment no alternative to this
discrimination can be discovered.
Respectfully,
