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462 HARVARD BUSINESS REPORTS
Comoedia, a French theatrical paper, went so far as to base an attack on the grounds that it was impertinence for the American Embassy to release statements to the press and to take part in trade discussions when there was no American ambassador appointed. The action of the Department of State in transmitting its note to the French government (among other European governments) on the subject of quota discrimination was criticized as undiplomatic, some editors referring to it as " blunt dollar diplomacy." The Motion Picture Producers and Distributors of America, Incorporated, and the American film industry were violently attacked and a demand was made for the expulsion from France of the representative of American motion picture interests.
The Courrier Cinematographique, an important trade publication, and UAmi du Peuple, Coty's new daily, however, violently denounced from the beginning all contingent and quota regulations, arguing that no product could be forced upon the public. They urged that quality competition was the only way for France to progress in picture production, as the world's markets would always be open to good pictures.
During a series of joint conferences arranged by the American Commercial Attache at Paris between representatives of the French and American industries and the Cinema Control Commission before the Undersecretary of State for Fine Arts, American representatives urged the substitution of a tariff on film imports for the quota restrictions. It was suggested that a part of the proceeds from such a tariff on each foreign picture entering France might go toward the tax budget, thereby reducing the burden of the theaters, and the balance be doled out to French producers. It was estimated that a customs tax averaging $400 on each picture imported would be effective. A high protective tariff similar to that on other products was held to be consistent. While the suggested arrangement was satisfactory to the interests of the French industry, the French government withheld its approval.
Two proposals were advanced by the French government. The first was a compromise to a four-for-one quota, and the second provided for the prohibition of blind and block booking and a limitation of imports to 515 films a year. A refusal on the part of the American representatives to accede to either proposal led to settlement of the controversy, in September, 1929, by an