857.85/12–942

Memorandum of Telephone Conversation, by the Assistant Secretary of State (Long)

Mr. Scoll18 called me on the telephone this afternoon and said that he had answered our letter about the Norwegians, and that the War Shipping Administration had chosen him, Scoll, to represent the War Shipping Administration and he had called a meeting in his office to meet the Norwegian representatives at 3 o’clock tomorrow afternoon. He said that he had been in telephone conversation with Mr. Sunde.

I replied that I was glad to hear that they were to have the conversation and that I hoped that they would understand that we did not care to be in on the technical negotiations, that we were neither equipped nor qualified for that purpose. However, the Norwegian Ambassador had called me on the telephone this morning and had stated that although he had named certain persons to carry on the negotiations, he himself desired to be present at the first meeting. Consequently, he requested that the State Department name a representative because he felt it would be more appropriate if some member of the Department as well as himself were present. Mr. Scoll agreed to the representation of the State Department at that meeting. I emphasized that our representation was for that meeting only and that the State Department did not care to continue in the negotiations.

I stated that the Norwegian Ambassador had called upon me yesterday and had stated that he did not want the replacement tonnage confused with the negotiations which he had agreed to undertake. I told Mr. Scoll that I had stated that I thought that was to be a part of those negotiations but that the Ambassador had stated that he did not so consider it; that he did consider that we had agreed in principle to the allocation of vessels in replacement; that the President and the Department of State had agreed; that Norway had fulfilled its part by having lost a lot of vessels in Allied service; that he expected that to be taken care of promptly and separately.

Mr. Scoll said the War Shipping Administration desired that matter to be held in abeyance until the settlement of the charter question. He thought it would be easy to settle the charter question that way. I replied that that was a matter for their negotiation and that all we were [Page 99] concerned about was that the Department of State had made a commitment acting under the authority of the President, and we naturally and necessarily had an interest in the fulfillment of that commitment. I suggested that on tomorrow he tell the Ambassador that they had in active contemplation the allocation of these vessels and would come to an arrangement with him in the comparatively near future which he thought would be satisfactory to the Norwegians.

Mr. Scoll expressed entire concurrence with the points I had made, and I reiterated that we were not interested in the conduct of the negotiations and the technical aspects of them, but we did have an overall interest in the fulfillment of our commitments to Norway. I told him that Mr. Saugstad or Mr. Foster would be designated to attend the meeting tomorrow.

B[reckinridge] L[ong]
  1. David Scoll of the War Shipping Administration.