File No. 600.119/515
The Ambassador in Great Britain ( Page ) to the Secretary of State
[Received February 9, 2.45 a.m.]
8572. Please deliver the following message to War Trade Board from Sheldon and note it contains reply your 6214 of January 10, 5 p.m.1
No. 109. Your No. 75. No inter-Allied blockade committee exists, as we have never received instructions from you on the points mentioned in my No. 37. I think, therefore, that final decision on the subject matter of your 75 should be deferred until agreement has been reached on inter-Allied blockade committee. Embassy has now received reply to note to Foreign Office on subject matter of your telegram of January 10, through State Department 6210. Their reply is on the lines indicated in my No. 101 and it is stated that British Embassy, Washington, was instructed to take up the matter direct with you. The Foreign Office note further points out that British Government have, as yet, received no concrete proposals from the [Page 957] United States Government as to how, where, and by whom the examination of neutral vessels is to be carried out in the event of the present system of examination at Halifax being abandoned. They state they are quite prepared to give immediate consideration to any definite suggestions which you put forward, but the question is one which must be considered in conjunction with the British Admiralty and should, in the opinion of the British authorities, be treated as quite distinct from that of the elimination of [letters of] assurance. This matter also, we are informed, is being discussed by the British Embassy, Washington, and the United States Government.
- Not printed.↩