711.00111 Armament Control/Military Secrets/1639

Memorandum by the Chief of the Division of Controls ( Green )

Mr. Sam Carp, President of the Carp Export and Import Corporation, and Mr. Scott Ferris, attorney for Mr. Carp, called at my office today. They told me that Mr. Gibbs, the naval architect, would send me within two weeks revised plans for a battleship to be constructed in this country for the U. S. S. R. They requested that I do everything possible upon receipt of the plans to arrange that the decision as to whether or not they involved military secrets of interest to the national defense be expedited.

I told Mr. Carp and Mr. Ferris that, upon receipt of the plans, I would transmit them immediately to the Navy Department. I warned them, however, that the examination of these plans by the Navy Department might require several weeks.

Mr. Carp then referred to the bill now pending in Congress “To authorize the Secretaries of War and of the Navy to assist the governments of American Republics to increase their military and naval establishments and for other purposes”. He asked whether it might not be possible to have that bill amended so that instead of applying to “the governments of American Republics”, it might be made to apply “to the governments of friendly nations”. He said that he hoped that that might be possible because the enactment of the bill, so amended, would enable the U. S. S. R. to purchase naval guns and fire control apparatus from the American, Government. He pointed [Page 874] out that one of his principal problems in connection with the construction of the proposed battleship would be to obtain guns and fire control apparatus from American private manufacturers.

I told Mr. Carp that I did not believe that there was any possibility whatever that Congress would agree to amend the bill in the manner in which he suggested.

Joseph C. Green