Hopkins Papers
The Assistant Secretary of War (McCloy) to the President’s Special Assistant (Hopkins)
Memorandum for Mr. Hopkins:
I have a copy of Burns’ memorandum to you on the subject of the allocation of finished military equipment to the allies.2 I have talked at some length to General Moore about it and I think that his approval in principle is only in principle. I believe that the set-up is too compartmentalized and that the only way to go about it is to treat the united production of the United Kingdom and the United States as one pool and have a Joint Allocation Committee[,] in accordance with the principles of paragraph 7 of Burns’ memorandum, dispose of it all. As a matter of practice the British will be able to dispose of their own production, in large part, to their own armies and to the countries that are within their particular sphere of influence, but the fundamental principle of joint production for joint effort should not be lost sight of.
We are preparing a counter-memorandum here which I think will set the thing up on a better basis than that suggested by General [Page 353] Macready.3 The principle stated by General Macready in the last page of his memorandum of the 7th4 will be the guiding one.