File No. 600.119/1192
The Secretary of State to the Ambassador in Great Britain ( Page )
1113. For Sheldon [from War Trade Board]:
No. 1154. Embassy 1354, August 24, 1 p.m.1 You will please advise Foreign Office that the Department has received and is giving immediate consideration to the note referred to in your 1354 and on the subject of export of oil-well materials to British oil companies. You will further state that it would assist the Government of the United States in a solution of the various questions raised by this note if the Government of the United States could be officially advised by the British Government whether the latter Government now controls the Royal Dutch Shell Company. If the Government of the United States can deal direct with the British Government on matters affecting this company, the various questions now under consideration can undoubtedly be disposed of much more effectively if they can be taken up with the British Government rather than by negotiations with private corporations.
- Not printed; transmitting a note from the Foreign Office similar in tenor to the British Embassy’s memorandum, supra. ↩