File No. 800.24/70
The Ambassador in France ( Sharp ) to the Secretary of State
[Received 11 p.m.]
4113. War Trade Board [from McFadden], attention of Woolley and War Industries Board:
No. 158. Your No. 99.2 It was decided at the meeting yesterday of Munitions Council to make the Inter-Allied Metal Conference a permanent subcommittee of Munitions Council which would sit in Paris or London for the purpose of considering all questions relative to non-ferrous metals, and the recommendations of Metal Conference to be referred for final decision to the Munitions Council. Loucheur and Churchill stated that they were willing for their missions to undertake preliminary reviews of these questions with you in Washington but they considered it essential that the formal discussions of same should be undertaken by the Metal Conference and the final decisions in connection therewith should be made by the Munitions Council. We communicated to them the contents of your cable No. 99. Both French and British state they have received no information from their missions in Washington in connection therewith, and furthermore the French state that there was no one connected with their mission in Washington qualified to discuss these subjects. We interpret your cable No. 99 to mean that you accept in general with some minor modifications the distribution, etc., of wolfram as recommended by Metal Conference February 21. McFadden.