841.24/1093b: Telegram
The Secretary of State to the Ambassador in the United Kingdom (Winant)
5789. We have already telegraphed you the text of Article VII of the draft lend-lease agreement which was handed to the British Ambassador on December 2. We have sent you by air mail the complete text of this proposed agreement and of the memorandum of the conversation between Assistant Secretary Acheson and Lord Halifax at the time the draft was handed to him.
While the nature of our draft is such as to preclude in our minds the possibility that there would be any serious objection to it, we nevertheless think it desirable that you approach the Prime Minister with the object of obtaining acceptance of the draft as promptly as possible. Developments in the past few days and the possible developments in the immediate future make it highly important that an agreement between our two governments be completed without delay. There should not be even the appearance of disagreement between the governments. It had been expected that the President would have to go to Congress in January for a further Lease-Lend appropriation. It is possible now not only that that date may have to be anticipated but that other requests for war appropriations must be made. The President has already, since the outbreak of the war with Japan, stressed his determination to continue the Lease-Lend program in full vigor. It is of the utmost importance that no factor such as the absence of a Lease-Lend Agreement between the two governments should operate to cause any reluctance in Congress to furnish the necessary funds or [Page 47] cause differentiation between appropriations necessitated by the outbreak of hostilities with Japan and those needed in the broad view of the war. It is also highly important that the terms of the Agreement should be kept on the broad plain of our draft and encouragement be not given to narrower conceptions which will not redound to the long range and basic interest of both countries.
The draft of Article VII which was handed to Lord Halifax is general in character and obviously of mutual benefit. Basically it defines the economic objectives of the two governments and provides for the opening of detailed conversations to reach agreement as to ways and means of reaching these objectives. Article VII, in essence, charts a broad course and commits the two governments to collaboration in making headway along that course. The negotiations which are to take place in pursuance of this proposed agreement will, of course, be based upon governing economic conditions. It is hard to see what more could be done to meet the difficulties which have been presented from the British standpoint.
The provision looking to the participation of other nations and the reiteration of the objectives of the Atlantic Charter make the Article a declaration of purpose around which all peoples of like mind may rally.
A speedy agreement is in the interest of both countries.