800.504/113
The Director of the Bureau of the Budget (Smith) to the President 1
Memorandum for the President
Subject: Need for a United Nations Conference on Post-War Employment Policies
The corollary to the favorable progress on the war fronts is the need for speeding up international as well as domestic post-war planning. [Page 1333] I know that some progress is being made as a result of the United Nations Conference on Food and Agriculture, by the Currency Stabilization Committee, and by committees on other specific items.
It is my feeling that greater and more coordinated progress would result from these separate activities if the central theme of Article VII of the master Lend-Lease agreements2 were developed by a conference on measures to expand domestic production and employment, at least in the great industrial countries. Such assurance is indispensable in both formulating sound recommendations and securing the desired results with regard to (1) expanded world food production; (2) a high level of international trade; (3) lowering tariffs and other trade barriers; (4) exchange stabilization; (5) expanded volume of international investment; and (6) full use of the world’s expanded facilities in shipping and aviation.
You may want to discuss with Mr. Churchill the advisability of arranging at an early date for a technical conference on the internal development programs of the several United Nations as provided for in Article VII of the Lend-Lease agreements.
Director
- The source text is a typed copy referred by Roosevelt to Hull on September 7, 1943, under cover of a memorandum which read: “What do you think? F.D.R.” No evidence has been found that the subject of Smith’s memorandum was discussed by Roosevelt with Churchill during their meetings at Washington and Hyde Park in September 1943. The comments of the Department of State in response to Roosevelt’s memorandum of September 7 were not forwarded to the President until November 29, 1943 (800.504/113).↩
- See, for example, article vii of the lend-lease agreement with the United Kingdom, signed at Washington, February 23, 1942, Department of State Executive Agreement Series No. 241; 56 Stat. (2) 1433; Department of State Bulletin, vol. vi, February 28, 1942, p. 192.↩