Foreign Relations of the United States, The Conferences at Washington, 1941–1942, and Casablanca, 1943

Hopkins Papers

The Presidents Special Assistant (Hopkins) to the President

[Washington,] December 17, 1941.

Memorandum for the President:

A matter of very urgent importance is our coming to an understanding with the British, and possibly the Dutch, relative to the allocation of various raw materials under our control.

This came up the other day at the S.P.A.B. meeting and everybody agreed that such a conference should be held.¹

There are so many Departments that are concerned with this that I think you are going to have to notify the participants.

Batt knows more about it than anyone else and I think has a primary interest in it because he is in charge of the materials section of OPM. I therefore suggest that he act as chairman of the group.

Harry L. Hopkins

1. Ante, p. 10.