611.41D31/36
Memorandum by the Assistant Secretary of State (Sayre) of a Conversation With President de Valera, in Dublin, August 29, 1935
Accompanied by the American Minister to Dublin, Mr. Owsley, I called on Mr. de Valera by appointment on the morning of August 29th. After exchanging personal greetings and various pleasant remarks, Mr. de Valera proceeded to speak about a possible trade agreement between the Irish Republic and the United States. He first spoke of the large excess of American imports into Ireland as compared to Irish exports to the United States. He went on to say that he felt the friendliest interest in the continuance and increase of Irish-American trade but that economic necessities must force the Irish Republic in some way or other to find a way of bringing their accounts more into balance.
In reply, I explained to him the necessity of trade being conducted on a triangular basis if nations are to buy in the cheapest foreign markets and if the present reduced channels of world trade are not to be still further restricted. I explained to him the position of the United States with regard to triangularity of trade and also suggested that statistics indicate that if all world trade had to be reduced to a basis of bilateral balancing it would probably have to be reduced by about one-third of its present value.
Mr. de Valera admitted the truth of these general statements but returned to the economic necessities of the Irish Republic. He went on to say that the Irish Republic depends largely on its trade with England, Germany and the United States, and that he would like to increase the trade with the United States even at the expense of other countries. To do this, he felt that some kind of a trade agreement is necessary, and said that unless some such trade agreement could be entered into the Irish Republic must take other steps in the direction of balancing its accounts, with unfortunate effects so far as Irish-American trade is concerned.
I asked him what concrete concessions he had in mind which he [Page 62] would desire the United States to make. He spoke of stout, of liquor, of horses, and of cattle. He said that there were doubtless other items which might enter into a trade agreement but these were the four important ones which he had in mind. I then explained to him the difficulties, political and otherwise, of a concession such as cattle.
He said that fundamentally he believed in freedom of trade; but that in the case of the Irish Republic it is necessary, in order to support the population, to develop various industries, and that protection is necessary for the industrial development of Ireland. He said that the growing restrictions in immigration which prevented Irish emigration, made it necessary to seek a larger industrialization of the Irish Free State and this, in turn, necessitated a protectionist movement there. In other words, he said that free trade is dependent upon freedom of movement of populations.
I said that the United States was sincerely desirous of entering into close and cordial relationships with the Irish Free State but that at present we were carrying as heavy a political weight as possible in our trade agreements program and that it would take time to develop the program. I said that we hoped we could negotiate with Ireland sometime in the future but that the present did not seem the most auspicious time in order to secure fruitful results.
After this, we discussed in a general way Mr. de Valera’s expected trip to Geneva and touched on the international problems which he would face there.