841.24/635½
Memorandum of Conversation, by the Assistant Secretary of State (Acheson)
Mr. Keynes12 called on me at his request to give me the substance of a conversation which he and the British Ambassador13 had with the President upon the subject of the considerations to be contained in the Lease-Lend Agreement. Mr. Keynes stated that the President asked him to inform me of the conversation so that we might proceed with the drafting along the lines indicated. Mr. Keynes also showed me a cable which he and the Ambassador sent to the Prime Minister today reporting the conversation and asking for authority to submit to us a draft transmitted by cable, which Mr. Keynes also showed me. He expects an answer on Wednesday14 or Thursday.
Mr. Keynes reported the President’s views as follows:
The President feels that he is not under pressure from Congress for the early publication of a Lease-Lend Agreement with the British. He believes that at the time he requests further appropriations for lease-lend or makes his next report to Congress it would be sufficient for him to report that discussions with the British are entering their concluding phase and are progressing satisfactorily. He believes that if an agreement were published by the first of the year it would be within sufficient time. However, the President believes that there should be some agreement worked out now which can be in the nature of a preliminary agreement and which would be available for publication if that proved to be necessary.
The President discussed with the Ambassador and Mr. Keynes certain ideas which he did not desire to formulate in an agreement at the present time because he believes the situation is not sufficiently clear. These were the possible creation of an international force to preserve peace after the war and also the creation of customs agreements with the West Indies and with the Dutch East Indies after the war. These did not contemplate any territorial concessions, which were not regarded [Page 7] as in the interest of the United States. For these reasons the President did not think it desirable to formulate at the present time or to crystallize too rigidly the considerations moving from the British.
The Ambassador and Mr. Keynes raised with the President the desirability of negativing certain types of consideration, even though it might not be possible to state positively the precise considerations which should be given. They mentioned to the President the importance inherent in the lease-lend idea of not creating a money debt and suggested phrases to indicate that the considerations should not be such as to interfere with the economic and commercial relations between the countries or between either of them and other countries. The President is reported to have believed that this would be possible.
They further discussed with the President the question of separating the obligations growing out of a transfer of warlike articles which were consumed or destroyed and purely civilian articles. They urged that this should not be done and reported that the President concurred in this view.
Mr. Keynes reported also that the President, in discussing the undesirability of crystallizing the considerations to be given, suggested that certain types of consideration might be mentioned under broad headings. These consisted, as I recall them, in an obligation to return unused material, to transfer defense articles when required for the defense of the United States, to transfer defense articles which might be required in connection with any project to preserve international peace, to enter into arrangements for post-war relief and reconstruction, to enter into arrangements for economic organization.
The idea of the conversation, as I gathered it from Mr. Keynes, was that the President was agreeable to something in the nature of a preliminary or skeleton agreement which would negative an obligation by the British to pay for defense articles in cash and which would indicate very broadly the general areas in which the considerations were later to be worked out in detail.
Mr. Keynes said that he hoped to present to me on Wednesday or Thursday the draft which he had sent to London for approval and that he hoped that we might conclude within a couple of weeks a preliminary agreement. I told Mr. Keynes that as soon as we had a draft we would discuss it with the Acting Secretary, who would probably wish to discuss it with the President and that I would reply to him as soon as possible in the light of their comments.