851.248/73
Memorandum of Conversation, by the Chief of the Office of Arms and Munitions Control (Green)
I called Mr. Guy Vaughan, President of the Curtiss-Wright Corporation, by telephone this afternoon and asked him whether the pending contract between his company and the French Government, which had been the subject of several recent conversations, had actually been closed.
Mr. Vaughan replied in the affirmative stating that the French had contracted to purchase one hundred pursuit planes of the type P–36, delivery to be begun in November 1938 and to be completed in April 1939. He added that the French had apparently abandoned their original intentions to purchase a much larger number of planes, a large quantity of parts for assembly in France, and manufacturing licenses and design data to enable them to construct Curtiss planes in France. He said that he still hoped, however, to close a contract for a number of airplane engines.
Mr. Vaughan said that the contract was satisfactory to his company except in one respect. He had wished to insert a clause which would require the French Government to pay for any planes constructed pursuant to the contract even if a proclamation under the [Page 309] Neutrality Act should supervene to prevent their exportation. The French, however, had refused to agree to the insertion of such a provision.