Office of the Historian

611.4231/808

Memorandum by the Secretary of State of a Conversation With the Canadian Chargé (Wrong)

[Washington,] May 26, 1933.

The Canadian Chargé came in and delivered the reply of the Canadian Government to President Roosevelt’s speech addressed to the world powers on disarmament, both military and economic.11 He protested against the pending House provisions intended to extend the tariff tax on lumber, oil, coal, and copper, until 1935, and also against the valuation of certain lumber imports on the Northwest Border.

I thanked the Chargé, but reminded him that I had a protest almost daily about the most amazing elastic system of customs valuations by Canada. I said that both countries were reaching a stalemate so far as any commercial transactions were concerned and that both alike [Page 50] should undertake to face in the direction of reform. I stated that I had not examined the question as to whether the proposed tax on copper and other articles mentioned violated the tariff truce.

C[ordell] H[ull]
  1. Message to various Chiefs of State, May 16, 1933, vol. i, p. 143.↩