851.48/451
Memorandum of Conversation, by the Acting Secretary of State
The British Ambassador called to see me this morning at his request.
I took up with the Ambassador the request which Norman Davis95 had made of me this morning involving the further shipment of [Page 189] powdered milk through the Red Cross for the French children in unoccupied France. I said to the Ambassador that in order to avoid discussion of a need for sending a further Red Cross ship to France, it seemed to Mr. Davis and myself that a practical solution would be to send on each one of the French ships leaving New York for North Africa a small quantity of powdered milk which could be transshipped from Casablanca to Marseille, at which latter port it would be taken in charge by Red Cross representatives and then distributed to the French children along exactly the same lines as have hitherto been employed. I said that the giving of powdered milk by the American Red Cross to the children of unoccupied France, from every report I had received, seemed to me to be of great political expediency and very definitely in the interests of Great Britain and of the United States. I stated that what was now suggested was merely a continuation of the policy already concurred in by both Governments some months ago. The Ambassador said that he was personally entirely in accord with the suggestion made and the desirability of continuing this policy, and that he would endeavor to get a favorable reply from his Government as rapidly as possible.
- Chairman of the American Red Cross.↩