840.50/4–1844: Telegram

President Roosevelt to the British Prime Minister (Churchill)

477. Reference my message No. 476,31a in which was suggested the need for United Nations machinery for joint planning of the procedures by which consideration should be given to the various fields of post-war international economic relations, I think that our two governments should be giving attention to the future status of the combined boards.32 The good work these boards have been doing has impressed me as I know it has you. As we go forward with United Nations planning in the international economic field, it is clear that the question of the part which the combined boards could or should play in such future arrangements as may be planned will become of increasing importance.

The question is bound to be raised regarding the relation between combined boards and the United Nations not represented on them. I do not think that it has yet been satisfactorily solved even though some phases of this question have been discussed in an exchange of memoranda between the British Embassy and the Department of State.

Possible solutions are being worked up by us and I think that it is of the greatest importance that on your side you give immediate consideration to the matter. In order to prepare ourselves to meet these questions, I believe that in the near future we should have exchanges of views on this subject.

  1. Supra.
  2. For a list of Combined Boards on which the United States was represented, see Department of State Bulletin, January 16, 1943, p. 67.