711.00111 Armament Control/Military Secrets/1938
Memorandum by the Chief of the Division of Controls (Green)
Mr. William F. Gibbs of Gibbs and Cox, Inc., having been informed that I was attempting on July 1 to communicate with him by telephone, called me by telephone on July 3. I informed him of the substance of the decisions of the Navy Department communicated to the Department in Commander Carney’s letter of July 1,94 and of the substance of my telephone conversation on that date with the Soviet Ambassador.95
Mr. Gibbs expressed his appreciation of my refusal to communicate a copy of Commander Carney’s letter to the Ambassador. He said that he thought that it was highly preferable that information regarding highly technical matters of this kind should reach the Ambassador [Page 891] through Gibbs and Cox and the Soviet Naval Mission as that procedure would tend to minimize misunderstanding.
At Mr. Gibbs’ request, the letter addressed to Gibbs and Cox, which is in preparation, communicating to that company the decisions of the Navy Department set forth in Commander Carney’s letter was read over the telephone this morning to a member of the staff of Gibbs and Cox in order that it might be discussed with the Soviet Naval Mission before the Ambassador’s departure for [from?] New York. I made it clear to Mr. Gibbs in my conversation with him on July 3 that the letter read to a member of his staff this morning was merely a draft subject to possible modification and that he should in discussing the decisions of the Navy Department with the Soviet Naval Mission make it clear that they had been communicated to him informally and that he was still awaiting formal confirmation.96
- Letter by Commander Robert B. Carney, written by special direction of the Acting Secretary of the Navy, Charles Edison. Commander Carney told the Chief of the Division of Controls that “this letter had been written after a long discussion of the whole matter between the President and Mr. Edison and on the basis of a memorandum signed by the President.” After the favorable, technical decisions contained in this letter it was the opinion of the naval advisers that “the design features available will produce destroyers and leaders of modern and efficient design capable of meeting their stated requirements.” (711.00111 Armament Control/Military Secrets/1938)↩
- Memorandum of conversation not printed.↩
- This confirmation was contained in a letter of July 6, 1939, to Gibbs and Cox, Inc. (711.00111 Armament Control/Military Secrets/1938).↩