740.00112 European War 1939/46
Memorandum of Conversation, by the Secretary of State
Lord Lothian1 called at my request. I brought up the whole question of American shipping and suggested that each of our two Governments should designate experts to confer with a view to adopting something like the certificate system that was in operation during the last part of the World War,2 and otherwise simplify in every possible [Page 719] manner the British and American situation as it would relate to the interference by Great Britain with American commerce, thereby reducing the occasion for halting or taking our ships into British ports or otherwise interfering with American commerce destined especially for small countries in Europe, such as Scandinavia, Holland and Belgium; that this would probably deal with the problem of rationing and its simplification. The Ambassador seemed interested in the matter and said he would communicate at once with his Government. I said to him that this proposed step would avoid the chief portion of the difficulties and serious controversies which raged between our two Governments during the first two years and more of the World War.
- British Ambassador in the United States.↩
- See Foreign Relations, 1917, supp. 2, vol. ii, pp. 804–1052 passim; also ibid., 1918, supp. 1, vol. ii, pp. 938–971 passim. ↩