800.6354/121: Telegram
The Ambassador in the United Kingdom (Kennedy) to the Secretary of State
[Received May 1—3:10 p.m.]
586. The Embassy suggested to Todd that he call upon the Minister at The Hague after the recent meeting of the International Tin Regulation [Page 922] Committee in that city. Todd has now returned to London and states that he did so and gave the Minister an account of the Committee’s deliberations including the statements by the manager of the buffer stock pool (a) that it now held 13,000 tons and (b) that he intended to begin selling as soon as the price reached the level of £226–£227. After the meeting, Mills80 told Todd in reply to the latter’s criticism of the high price level at which the stocks operations would begin, that he hoped in due course to work the price down.
Todd assumes that the Iron and Steel Federation will continue to pass on to the Department copies of his telegraphic and written reports. He has suggested that American buyers switch their purchases from Straits tin, which normally sells at a premium of about £7, to standard tin until the price moves down. From a tactical point of view this suggestion has merit in view of the fact that Malaya is the highest grade and cheapest cost producer and that there was an important section of Malayan tin interests which were even opposed to the formation of the buffer stock pool. Since the United States is the largest consumer of Straits tin Malaya would make its voice heard on the buffer stock policy.
Incidentally at Campbell’s request all the discussion on the buffer stock was omitted from the official minutes of the meeting.
- Buffer pool operator.↩