825.24/211½
Memorandum of Conversation, by the Assistant Secretary of State (Acheson)
The Ambassador of Chile called at his request. He reminded me that, as he had told me before, he had received from the Lease-Lend organization a notice that he should prepare and submit to that Department his list of requests for military materials within thirty days from the date of the letter56 and that the 30 days was running. He said that he desired as soon as possible and, if possible, this week, to reach an agreement on a final draft of the lease-lend agreement. He handed me an Aide-Mémoire, copy of which is attached,57 and went over with me again the points which he had previously raised, together with some additional ones.
- 1.
- He again referred to his request that the dollar amount of the articles to be transferred to Chile be omitted from Article I. He said that he wished this because it would raise suspicions in the Chilean Congress that, if Chile were to receive a larger dollar value than the dollar payments which it was to make, there was some other and undisclosed consideration. It would be agreeable to him to have Article I provide that the United States proposed to transfer to Chile under the terms of this agreement armaments and munitions of war in accordance with the lists to be attached to this agreement from time to time. The lists could then be attached after the signing of the agreement as they were prepared, and there would be an exchange of letters between the Ambassador and the Secretary stating that the lists to be prepared would amount to a total value of about the amount which had already been mentioned. I told him that I would have to confer with other officers about this matter, but that I thought that a solution could be reached along these lines.
- 2.
- In Article V he wished to have eliminated the words, “without the consent of the President of the United States of America”, and the similar phrase in the second paragraph. The result of this would be to put a complete prohibition upon the transfer of title to the armaments and munitions which either country might transfer to the other. I told him that I saw no serious difficulty about this request, since it was simply waiving a right which the statute permitted to be given to Chile.
- 3.
- He referred to Article IV of the draft agreement, which refers to the circumstances under which Chile agrees to make defense articles available to the United States, and requested that the obligation be to [Page 575] make such articles available to the United States to the extent possible and under the terms to be agreed upon. I told him that the suggestion which he made was in accordance with my understanding of the provisions of Article IV.
- 4.
- He then referred to Article VI, the patent protection article, which he did not understand, and said that his Government had asked him to inquire what action was contemplated by the Article and how the amounts which Chile agrees to pay were to be determined and in accordance with what provisions of law. After some discussion, he agreed that the provision would be more satisfactory to Chile if it provided that Chile agreed to take action and indemnify citizens of the United States for patent claims in accordance with the laws of the United States, including Section 7 of the Lease-Lend Act, the provisions of which Chile expressly accepted, with similar provisions for the United States, omitting, of course, reference to the Lease-Lend Act.58
Since the Ambassador has pressed several times for the conclusion of the agreement, I suggest that we proceed at once to a final revision.