740.00112 European War 1939/151
Memorandum of Conversation, by the Chief of the Division of European Affairs (Moffat)
The Belgian Ambassador called this morning to inquire what had transpired with the idea thrown out by the President to maintain a “sea lane” to Belgium and the Netherlands. The Ambassador said that he had difficulty in reconciling the President’s earlier suggestion with his message to Congress recommending that the American Merchant Marine be forbidden from entering danger zones.38
I answered the Ambassador that while I did not see how it would be possible to give him any more precise information regarding the shipping situation until the Congressional debates on neutrality were clarified, yet I did not see that the creation or maintenance of a sea lane necessarily required that American ships should use that sea lane.
[Page 746]Meanwhile I called to the Ambassador’s attention the two schools of thought regarding cash and carry that were becoming vocal on Capitol Hill. One school wished to exclude American ships from all belligerent ports; the other school wished to exclude them from danger zones. There was a distinction between the two and it was not yet clear which concept would prevail.
I told the Ambassador, however, that it was quite clear that the idea of cash and carry was demanded by the public and that there would undoubtedly be limitations on the right of American ships to ply back and forth between America and certain European ports. The Ambassador said that he realized the force of all that I had told him, but that Belgium was still hoping that somehow or other arrangements might be made to keep American ships in the trade between New York and Antwerp.
- President Roosevelt’s message to Congress, September 21, 1939, Department of State Bulletin, September 23, 1939, p. 275.↩