561.35E1/13: Telegram (part air)
The Consul at Geneva (Gilbert) to the Secretary of State
[Received January 25—12:55 p.m.]
22. Consulate’s 9, January 15, 6 p.m.6
1. Secretariat has received a communication from the British Colonial Office explaining unofficially its views after being apprised of the American suggestions as set forth in the Department’s 3, January 13, 11 a.m. The substance of this letter is as follows:
- (a)
- Considering the immediate issue to be the form and scope of the proposed meeting it is explained that the original reason why preliminary conversations were proposed was that it was believed that the “full dress conference” of all interested countries with the concomitant publicity would have little prospect of success unless a preliminary agreement could be reached between the Chadbourne countries, Great Britain and the United States. It was also desired that these preliminary conversations be held with a minimum of formality and publicity.
- (b)
- It appears essential that Great Britain and the United States be represented by government delegates in the absence of industrial organizations fully representative of the respective sugar industries while the Chadbourne countries could be sufficiently represented by industrial organizations signatory to the Chadbourne plan and represented on the International Sugar Council.
- (c)
- The Colonial Office requests that the foregoing considerations be explained to the American Government and expresses the opinion that the combination of the two American suggestions would have the effect of bringing about immediately the type of conference which [Page 667] they feel should await the results of more informal exploratory conversations.
The Colonial Office made it clear, however, that it did not desire to be obstructive on matters of form and if the American Government insisted it would probably not object to government representatives for the Chadbourne countries. It would on the other hand be strongly opposed to enlarging the representation at the preliminary meeting by inviting countries immediately to those originally envisaged.
2. The Secretariat is anxious to advance this matter in the most practical way and is inclined to favor preliminary conversations with limited representation as done in the case of wheat. They would appreciate being informed of the degree of importance which the Department attaches to each of the two suggestions relative to the character of the meeting which it has put forward.
The Secretariat would like to avoid all unnecessary publicity for the present in order not to be subjected to pressure from countries to participate which were not originally included in the proposal.
- Not printed.↩