You will, I daresay, have studies the valuable monograph entitled "The   
Unite dStates in the World Economy" published by your Department of   
Commerce.  From that it is clear taht the great European depression   
between the two wars was not due, as current legend sometimes asserts, to   
high tariffs, quotas and exchange restrictions, even if your 1930 Hawley-  
Smoot Tariff may have accentuated it.  It was due primarily to the   
nations, more particularly of Europe, getting back onto the gold standard   
with the help of lavish American lending and so having the whole basis of   
their economic life pulled away from under them when Americans, first for   
the sake of their own boom and secondly because of their own slump,   
withdrew their support.  The Most Favoured Nation Clause prevented them   
from giving each other mutual preference and so keeping trade and credit   
circulating within their own borders, and was therefore a main   
contributory cause of the diaster.  The memorandum points out that the   
only possiblity for a world of free mulitlateral trading and investment   
depends on the future internal as well as external stability  of the   
American economic system.  But who can guarantee that?  The memorandum on   
the other hand alos points out that the other countires recovered even   
quicker than the United States or Canada which was closely tied up with   
you, as a result of hte various measures which may have impeded world   
         trade but stimulated domestic production.          
 
                                                            
 
 
I think you wil find that all nations practically after this was will want   
to build up their own economies on the bais of stability of employment and   
maintenance of their domestic standards.  For that purpose thay will have   
to keep their hands free to impose whatever regulations may at any moment   
be convenient and will be very reluctant to commit themselves to any far-  
reaching agreement tending in the direction of freer international trade.    
In our own case we shall have tremendous difficulties, for many years I   
think, in paying our way in the world, i.e., in being able to export   
enough to cover our immediate requirments in the shape of raw materials   
and such food stuffs as we cannot reasonably produce in this country.  But   
that means that we shall have to give vigorous protection to our domestic   
agriculture and keep out unnecessary luxuries and manufactured goods, and   
that we can only afford to relax that policy in return for definite   
concessions in other markets, and nor merely on the off-chance of   
increasing our export trade in the world at large under a regime of low   
          tariffs and Most Favoured Nation Clause.          
 
  I would go even further and express my own grave doubts