851.248/257
Memorandum of Conversation, by the Chief of the Division of Controls (Green)
Mr. Sol Rosenblatt called at my office this morning without having made an appointment. While he was sitting in my outer office, I called the Assistant Secretary of War by telephone. Colonel Johnson told me that Mr. Rosenblatt had just left his office. Colonel Johnson expressed approval of my suggestion that I should tell Mr. Rosenblatt that this Government had no objection at this time to his carrying out the plan outlined by him in his conversation with us on April 20 and set forth in his letter of April 22 to the Assistant Secretary of War.
When Mr. Rosenblatt entered, I told him that we had been expecting a call from him for several weeks but that I was surprised to see him today as I understood that he had sailed for France early this week.
Mr. Rosenblatt said that he had suddenly changed his plans upon receipt of a telegram from his associates in France and that he had come to Washington to call on the Assistant Secretary of War and me in order to ascertain whether this Government still had any objection to his undertaking to carry out the plan for the setting up of a plant for the manufacture of airplanes in New Orleans as set forth in his letter of April 22 to the Assistant Secretary of War.
I replied to Mr. Rosenblatt in the terms agreed upon with Colonel Johnson.
Mr. Rosenblatt said that he fully understood the objections on the part of this Government which had led us to desire that he postpone the carrying out of his plan. He said that he was glad to hear that there would be no objection to its being carried out at this time. He said that he intended to carry it out exactly in accordance with the terms of his letter to the Assistant Secretary of War except for minor modifications on two points: (1) as the firm of Newman Harris and Company of New Orleans was now under indictment in Los Angeles in connection with the recent political scandals in that state, some other financial backing would have to be obtained; (2) the names “Amiot” and “Bendix” would probably not be used either in the name of the company or as the name of the planes to be manufactured.
I said that neither of these changes seemed to be of any importance to the Government.
I asked Mr. Rosenblatt how long it would probably be before there would be any publicity in regard to the setting up of this plant.
He replied that there would certainly be no publicity for several months and probably not until construction of the plant in New Orleans was actually under way.
[Page 520]I requested Mr. Rosenblatt to keep the War Department informed of any developments in connection with the carrying out of his proposed transaction which might be of interest to that Department.
Mr. Rosenblatt agreed to comply with my request.
In view of my conversation with Mr. Rosenblatt, it would appear to be unnecessary to send him the attached letter53 which was drafted by Mr. Yost with the approval of the Assistant Secretary of War.
- Not printed.↩