Hopkins Papers
Memorandum by the Director of Materials, Office of Production Management (Batt)1
Memorandum
Relationship of the Raw Materials International Conference to the Shipping Problem
Assuming that there is a high level strategy board made up of, for instance, the Chief of Staff, the Chief of Naval Operations, Mr. Hopkins, the head of the Maritime Commission, and representatives of other powers, would there not be underneath them a working group to implement their decisions on which we, as the raw materials interests, would have our place. In that respect the operations of the shipping round table would be similar to the operations of the raw materials round table. We would have in the materials group what might be called a cargo clearance function where we would indicate [Page 328] the relative priorities, specific allocations, both by commodity and by area, which package would be wrapped up and carried to the shipping table by our representative. He would be competing for space with the representatives of the armed services and other applicants. If a reasonably satisfactory settlement were jointly arrived at, there would be no occasion for an appeal to the top board, but if on raw materials we were convinced that the defense effort was being handicapped by an inequitable distribution, then we would appeal to the top strategy board through Mr. Hopkins.
- The source text is a copy of the memorandum with the words “To Mr. Hopkins” written in longhand and signed “Bill”.↩