884.512 Consumption/45
The Minister in Ethiopia (Southard) to the Secretary of State
[Received November 5.]
Sir: I have the honor to refer to the Legation’s No. 822 of September 28th, 1931,24 reporting that the local British, French and Italian representatives had presented to the Ethiopian Government a protest against the excise tax law and to enclose herewith in the original French a copy of their actual note.24 An English translation will be prepared and forwarded later.
This note is based upon the draft24 forwarded with the Legation’s No. 776 of August 1st, 1931, which was at the time proposed by my British, French and Italian colleagues for signature by the Diplomatic Corps as a body. The Department is familiar from the Legation’s various reports with the reasons which prevented agreement of the Diplomatic body as a whole. After consideration my British, French and Italian colleagues decided to make the note of protest their own and submitted it in the form of the attached document. It does not, in effect at least, differ greatly from the original draft mentioned in the opening sentence of this paragraph.
The Ethiopian Government has already replied to this note of the three powers and the Legation expects shortly to have a copy of that reply to forward to the Department. The reply is understood to have been very unsatisfactory to my three colleagues.
Respectfully yours,