Page:Ford, Kissinger, British Prime Minister Harold Wilson, Foreign Secretary James Callaghan - July 30, 1975(Gerald Ford Library)(1553188).pdf/1

File scanned from the National Security Adviser's Memoranda of Conversation Collection at the Gerald R. Ford Presidential Library

(Draft prepared from notes taken by Mr. Sonnenfeldt but not yet reviewed by him.)

PARTICIPANTS:

Harold Wilson, Prime Minister

James Callaghan, Secretary of State for Foreign & Commonwealth Affairs

Gerald R. Ford, President

Henry A. Kissinger, Secretary of State

Helmut Sonnenfeldt, Counselor

Congratulation on the Referendum vote.

The timing was good. We couldn't have gotten that vote earlier. We played it cool, acted as though we had to be convinced and only pulled out the stops at the end.

The polls were accurate.

The next problem is unemployment.

It now stands at one and a half million.

Our economists agree that American unemployment has peaked and will drop. The unemployment level is now pretty stable at 8.9-9%. Allowing, however, for seasonal adjustment, unemployment dropped between 400,000 to 600,000, a substantial drop.

Your productivity indexes are up.

The combined index is up 1.7%. This is less than we would like but it is still up and encouraging.

How was your harvest?

We expect 200 million tons of wheat and 61 or 62 million tons of corn. The growing season is still on but everything looks very good.