857.857/388
Memorandum of Conversation, by the Secretary of State
The Ambassador of Norway came in following his recent return from London. He repeated the same views about their shipping situation, which he had expressed to Assistant Secretary Long. I said that it had been agreed that certain tonnage lost in the Allied cause would be replaced by ships from the United States and that the only thing remaining was to work out the details of the agreement as to the kind of ships and the number, et cetera. The purpose of the agreement was [Page 91] twofold, namely, to replace tonnage lost and to give employment to several hundred Norwegian seamen, engineers, et cetera, who are in this country at the present time because their ships had been sunk.
I stated that every effort would be made to bring this matter to an early conclusion.