811.24 Raw Materials/450: Telegram
The Ambassador in the United Kingdom (Kennedy) to the Secretary of State
[Received November 29—10:20 a.m.]
2479. Replying to your 1520, November 28, 6 p.m. I assume that your relations with the Rubber Committee have not been badly managed in the past but I am assuming what we want to get is present results and not bouquets for past performance. I am not familiar with the method of negotiating the past arrangement but I have confidence in Butterworth and I assume we got all we could. It would not make any difference how good we thought we were if we were not getting the results now we should be getting.
The problem definitely is that the method of conducting these negotiations is completely wrong. You cannot fire a pea-shooter every day in the week and expect to get the results that a 16-pounder will get if you fired once in a while. If the Embassy, which of course will always cooperate with American business interests and has in this case, feels definitely that the method of procedure is wrong, you either ought to take the matter out of the Embassy’s hands or follow its suggestions. What I am trying to get for you is the best results. The present procedure is definitely not the way to get them.
I am indeed sorry that Mr. Viles cannot make the trip. The indication, when this matter was mentioned before, was that he could not leave at the moment; I assumed that there was a particular reason for it at that time and that he would be able to come at another time. With all due respect to Mr. Viles, it seems to me that the interests of the rubber industry are more important than an individual’s and if Viles cannot come, let somebody else come. The thing that is wrong is that the Embassy is now merely a clearing house for statements from you on one hand and MacDonald and the Committee on the other and we do not find ourselves able to make any individual arguments because we cannot answer the arguments with any degree of assurance. [Page 905] I grant you that your telegrams and instructions to us seem most plausible but so do MacDonald’s when he answers them. I have not any hesitancy in taking on a trading proposition and I have not any desire to pass the buck on these transactions but I expect you want me to tell you how I think you can get the best results and the mere fact that Viles cannot get here because he is an old man is to me certainly no reason why the United States Government should not urge the rubber interests to send someone who is familiar with entire proposition and our trade.
Tell Butterworth I am very cheerful about the report of his trip. I am just starting on the same one this morning.