Office of the Historian

840.48 Refugees/4763: Telegram

The Ambassador in the United Kingdom (Winant) to the Secretary of State

London, November 11, 1943.
[Received November 12—1:29 a.m.]

7867. The Secretary of the Intergovernmental Committee on Refugees has circulated notice of an Executive Committee meeting November 18th. The agenda includes the following.

1.
Procedure for approval of minutes as proposed in enclosure to despatch 12063 November 4, 1943.82 Department’s instructions are requested.
2.
The acceptance of Kullmann83 as Honorary Assistant Director. Embassy believes Department’s already expressed approval will be sufficient.
3.
There may be a report from the sub-committee on administrative expenses if the Brazilian Ambassador receives instructions in time. No new instructions to us are believed necessary at present.
4.
The Embassy desires Department’s instructions with regard to relations between IGC84 and UNRRA85 concerning which the following memorandum dated November 8th from the Director is to serve as basis for a request by him for authorization by the Executive Committee:
  • “1. At the meeting of the Executive Committee held on the 30th September 1943, the Director stated that he and the Vice-Director had started preliminary and exploratory inquiries regarding the relations between the IGC and the UNRRA, and that when the case was ready it would be submitted for consideration at the next meeting of the Committee.
  • 2. The preliminary stages of inquiry and discussion included the following:
    (a)
    The draft of a memorandum by the Director in consultation with the Vice-Director stating their conception of the relations between IGC and UNRRA.
    (b)
    Discussions of this memorandum with Sir Frederick Leith-Ross86 and his colleagues on the British side, the result being that it was accepted with very slight modification as according with their views.
    (c)
    Discussion of the memorandum with representatives of the Embassy of the United States of America and also representatives in this country of the OFRRO,87 the official American relief organization. As a result of this discussion the memorandum was referred by the representatives of OFRRO to their headquarters in Washington, the question also being raised as to whether it would be desirable for the Director or Vice-Director to be present if, and when, the question was discussed at the conference relating to UNRRA which is to take place this month in Atlantic City.88
    (d)
    The result of the reference in Washington is given in the letter attached (enclosure 1 from Mr. Jackson, Special Assistant to Governor Lehman, the Director of OFRRO, to Mr. Hoehler, the head of its London office).
    (e)
    During those discussions, it was made clear by the Director and Vice-Director that the memorandum represented their views only and not necessarily those of the Executive Committee, and that the object of the discussions was to enable the Director to submit the case to the Executive Committee in a form in which the issues would be clearly defined. Similarly, it was made clear on the other side that the views expressed could not commit UNRRA and that the question would have to be considered by that body.
    (f)
    Subject to the above qualification, the present position is that a large, indeed almost complete, measure of agreement has been reached in the preliminary and non-committal discussions, [Page 219] and that the question is likely to be discussed in the very near future in the course of the conference at Atlantic City.
  • 3. The attached memorandum (enclosure 2) embodies the views of the Directorate put forward during the preliminary discussions, and accepted to the extent indicated above. The Executive Committee is now requested to consider and to adopt, with such modification as it may deem necessary, the conception of the relations between the two bodies as stated in the memorandum.
  • The Executive Committee is further requested to authorize the Directorate to take what consequent action may be necessary including the following:
    (a)
    To arrange for the decisions of the Executive Committee to be available during the discussions in Atlantic City.
    (b)
    To arrange that, if any difference of a principle should emerge during those discussions, the IGC be given an opportunity of representing its views before any conclusions are reached.
    (c)
    To invite Mr. Myron Taylor, on behalf of the Executive Committee, kindly to represent the IGC if this is necessary, or if he is unable to attend, kindly to arrange for Mr. Robert Pell (formerly on the IGC staff and now in the Department of State, and designated as Mr. Taylor’s alternate on IGC matters) to represent the IGC and to arrange that Mr. Myron Taylor be adequately briefed.”

First enclosure mentioned above is letter of October 1489 from Hugh Jackson of OFRRO to Fred K. Hoehler and second is memorandum transmitted with despatch 11508, October 5th.90

Winant
  1. Not printed.↩
  2. Gustave Gerard Kullmann, Swiss citizen, Deputy High Commissioner for Refugees under the League of Nations.↩
  3. Intergovernmental Committee.↩
  4. United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration.↩
  5. Chairman, Inter-Allied Committee on Postwar Requirements.↩
  6. Office of Foreign Relief and Rehabilitation Operations, Department of State.↩
  7. See Department of State Conference Series No. 53: First Session of the Council of the United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration, Selected Documents, Atlantic City, New Jersey, November 10–December 1, 1943 (Washington, Government Printing Office, 1944).↩
  8. Not found in Department files.↩
  9. Not printed.↩