740.00112A European War, 1939/16880: Airgram
The Acting Secretary of State to the Ambassador in the United Kingdom (Winant)
A–138. Your 4991, September 5, 1942, concerning MEW proposal that some announcement be made that the War Trade Lists will remain in effect for some time after termination of the war. The following represent our tentative views on this matter.
We believe that any formal announcement by the British Government or this Government along these lines would receive primary attention both in neutral and belligerent countries as representing one of the first concrete statements of post-war policies on the part of our governments. It would probably be given more importance and broader interpretation than would be warranted and in this connection we believe such an announcement would inevitably result in charges that the continuation of our War Trade Lists after the war would involve punitive measures against neutrals and that such a policy would be contrary to and make impossible the establishment of normal and non-discriminatory international commercial relations between peaceful nations. The announcement of such a policy might be distorted to represent policies more in accord with the “new order” of the Axis than the type of post-war settlement for which the United Nations are fighting. Moreover, an announcement now that we proposed to continue the war trade lists after the war would be accepted by persons who are critical of the lists as confirming the charge that the lists are motivated by national trade rivalries and selfish commercial considerations rather than the exigencies of war and national defense. We fear that such charges might discredit seriously the post-war policies of the United Nations and in particular the present economic warfare justification for the War Trade Lists in the eyes of the countries affected and in the eyes of the business community generally. Against these manifest and serious objections to such an announcement at present we find it difficult to see clearly the compensating advantages which would be realized. We believe it is very important in this connection to distinguish sharply between the question of whether it will be necessary to retain the War Trade Lists in operation for a period following the termination of the war and the question of whether it is advisable presently to announce such a policy. [Page 296] We can imagine that it may well be necessary to retain the lists for a period after the war, but we believe it is impossible at present to foresee with any accuracy what will be the nature of the conditions which might make such a policy necessary. It is quite probable that the immediate post-war conditions would be such that any such policy would have to take into account the situation in particular countries. On the other hand, we cannot at present imagine any useful purpose which would be served by an announcement which suggested that a distinction would be drawn between different countries. In fact, there would be obvious dangers in any such suggestion. Since the principal, if not the only, advantage for making such an announcement of policy now would be the deterrent effect which it would have on otherwise invulnerable firms it would be necessary, in our opinion, to make the announcement absolutely applicable to specified countries or to all countries if its deterrent purpose was to be realized.
If we are correct in believing that the principal or sole purpose of such an announcement would be its deterrent effect in assisting the current enforcement of the War Trade Lists policy we can see very little, if any, need for invoking such an additional sanction with respect to the American Republics since nearly all firms in these countries which are dependent upon international trade are today either subject to the effective threat of inclusion on the War Trade Lists, or are subject to local internal controls which restrict or prevent pro-Axis activities on their part. Accordingly, today we can see no advantage which could outweigh the obvious disadvantages of announcing such a policy with respect to the American Republics. Although we are not in a position at present to say that there would not be important deterrent advantages in announcing such a policy for certain European countries, we are very doubtful, as stated above, that it would be advisable politically or otherwise to single out the European neutrals in any such announcement.
The foregoing represent our preliminary views on this matter and we believe it would be advisable for you to bring these considerations promptly to the attention of responsible officials in the British Government in order that a hasty and ill-advised position may not be taken on this extremely important matter. In this connection you may state that we would now be opposed to making any such announcement with respect to the American Republics and that we would not be prepared to associate ourselves with such an announcement with respect to the European countries without much more careful consideration and a clearer appreciation of the advantages from and necessity for such a move. We, of course, recognize that future developments might be such as to require an entirely different view of this matter.
It is possible that the objective which MEW has in mind might be substantially achieved in particular cases in Europe if informally and [Page 297] unofficially the local Black List authorities found appropriate occasions for replying to inquiries on this subject to the effect that it was not impossible that our Governments would find it necessary to maintain their War Trade List policies with respect to certain persons and firms who had proven unfriendly to our war interests. We should want to give further consideration to even this possibility before anything were done along these lines by our representatives.