862.852/48

Memorandum of Conversation, by the Assistant Secretary of State (Berle)

The French Ambassador telephoned me this morning. He said he had gathered from our conversation that action by the Panama Conference regarding the transfer of blockaded German ships to inter-American governments had not taken place. Yet in this morning’s paper he had observed that a resolution on the subject was passed.

I called to his attention the fact that while I had made no mention of any possible action by the Panama Conference regarding these ships, I had indicated to him that certain Latin American governments were pressing the problem of transfer of these ships to their [Page 68] flags. The final resolutions of the Panama Conference had not as yet reached us and I would have to withhold any comment until we had the texts of the resolutions passed.

A. A. Berle, Jr.