195.2/3688

Memorandum of Conversation, by the Assistant Chief of the Division of European Affairs (Henderson)

In pursuance of my promise to reply to Mr. Oumansky’s inquiry as to the reasons which caused the Maritime Commission to refuse a number of Amtorg applications to charter or acquire American ships, I read to him over the telephone today Mr. Berle’s memorandum to Mr. Dunn of February 29.66

Mr. Oumansky said that he accepted with reserve some of the statements made in the memorandum since according to information in his possession the Maritime Commission, while rejecting Amtorg applications, almost simultaneously granted applications to other parties to charter American ships in similar circumstances.

[Page 254]

He asked if he would not be justified in telegraphing his government that the Maritime Commission had definitely decided to refuse charters to Amtorg.

I replied that in my opinion such a telegram would be unjustifiable, in view of what I had just told him. Each application, according to my understanding, rested entirely on its own merits. There was no reason why Amtorg should not apply for the charter of an American ship whenever it desired to do so, and I had no reason to doubt that if in the opinion of the Maritime Commission American interests would be served by the granting of a charter, an application for such charter would not be refused. I said I was not prepared to enter into a discussion with him regarding his intimation that the Maritime Commission was discriminating against Amtorg. The information which we had received from the Maritime Commission, as I had already told him, was to the effect that decisions with respect to the questions of applications for charters rested solely on the domestic policy of the United States. I did not believe that any person who was not in possession of all the facts which entered into the various decisions made by the Maritime Commission was qualified to accuse that Commission of discrimination against any foreign country.

[Annex]

Memorandum by the Assistant Secretary of State (Berle) to the Adviser on Political Relations (Dunn)

I have discussed with the Maritime Commission their policy with respect to the Amtorg applications to charter or acquire American ships.

Commissioner Woodward68 informs me that the policies and action of the Maritime Commission in respect to applications for transfers of American ships are guided entirely by considerations of American domestic policy. They take into consideration the present employment of American shipping; the desirability of removing such shipping from the possibility of American use; the demands for tonnage in various parts of the world, and, as for example the relative transportation requirements in the Atlantic and Pacific; the possible need of certain kinds of vessels for naval reserve or national defense purposes, and the like.

In the case of each application, these and similar factors are considered by the Commission; and wherever an application for transfer [Page 255] is denied the reason for such denial rests on these considerations, which rest solely on the domestic policy of the United States.

A. A. Berle, Jr.
  1. The annex to this document.
  2. Thomas M. Woodward, Vice Chairman of the United States Maritime Commission.