Foreign Relations of the United States Diplomatic Papers, 1939, General, Volume I

841.24/100: Telegram

The Ambassador in France (Bullitt) to the Secretary of State

Paris, October 17, 1939—10 a.m.
[Received October 17—7:15 a.m.]

2487. Personal for the President. With reference to enclosure No. 1 to my letter of October 4, 1939,⁴⁰ I now have the text of the agreement which Monnet⁴¹ concluded in London for the coordination of French-British economic activities during the war covering shipping, air production and supply raw materials and munitions, oil and food.

Monnet was informed by the British Government that you had indicated to Lothian that you considered a British mission preferable to a purchasing corporation. The question will be decided in Paris tonight or tomorrow. Because of [the fact that?] the pooling of resources by the French and British Governments achieved agreement, the French Government is inclined to believe that it would be preferable to make purchases in the United States through a single joint Franco-British mission.

My opinion is that a joint Franco-British mission would be the most efficient mechanism.

Question 1. Do you agree?

I assume from Morgenthau’s⁴² talk with St. Quentin⁴³ on September 13, 1939, that such a joint mission would be able to find the same sort of cooperation in Washington that was accorded last winter to Monnet.

Question 2. Is this assumption correct?

Bullitt

40. Not found in Department files.
41. Jean Monnet, French financier.
42. Henry Morgenthau, Jr., Secretary of the Treasury.
43. Count de Saint-Quentin, French Ambassador in the United States.