After a year at Washington, Howard found his financial resources stretched thinly. A third son, Hubert, had been born in December 1907 and this, in combination with the social responsibilities of a counsellor, began to erode his inheritance. Moreover, in the autumn of 1907, he had made a trip to Louis d'Or and learnt the disheartening news that the experimental rubber-growing would not succeed. Latex flow remained well below that needed for profitable enterprise and, worse, could not be expected to improve. He and Thorlief Orde therefore made the decision to begin anew with cocoa cultivation. All of the rubber groves would have to be cut down and replaced with cocoa trees. It would be a while before he could rely on any substantial income from this venture, let alone have enough annual profits to consider retiring once again from the Diplomatic Service. These financial strictures convinced him of what had been evident since he rejoined the Embassy at Rome: his future and the security of his family lay in a diplomatic career.

On returning from Louis d'Or he enquired discreetly of his friends at the Foreign Office about the possibility of an early transfer from Washington to some less costly post.