World Sugar Talks

The four great sugar bowls of the world are the U. S., Cuba, Java, Europe. Last week representatives of these bowls were striving to halt the great stream of production which has filled their bowls to overflowing, has taken sweet profit out of the industry.

To save the Cuban bowl is the mission of Thomas Lincoln Chadbourne, smart Manhattan lawyer appointed tsar last summer by the Cuban Growers & American Bankers (TIME, Aug. 18). Last week he was in Amsterdam, determined to save the world sugar industry in his attempt to help Cuba.

Likewise in Amsterdam were representatives of Visp (Vereenigde Javasuiker Producenten) the Dutch sugar trust which controls 90% of Java's sugar industry. Intrigue and plotting marked the conferences. From the Cuban Nationalist party came dire messages warning the Dutch that soon a revolution will overthrow the Cuban Government, repudiate all of last week's deals. Busily hurrying around was Ivy Ledbetter Lee, famed Wall Street publicist. Mr. Chadbourne fought off bronchitis to attend the meetings. Java at first was recalcitrant. Production would be restricted next year, said the Visp men, but the future depended on consumption in the Far East, traditionally Java's market. To Mr. Chadbourne that was not enough, nor was Visp's promise of "moral cooperation." Many a 7,000-mile telephone conversation to Java was held, delighting telephone officials. Students of international dickerings said Mr. Chadbourne had made a typically American error. He had placed his cards on the table the first day. The Dutch did not believe those were his real terms, but merely the starting point for compromises. After the conference seemed over, however, Visp announced it would come to terms. Mr. Chadbourne had indeed beat the Dutch.

Ready to present a united though ill-defined front, the Cuban, American and Javan interests then journeyed to Brussels to meet the great beet-sugar men of Europe. Only complete harmony in Brussels will assure world sugar stability.

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