840.50/8–2444
The Assistant Secretary of State (Acheson) to the British Minister (Campbell)6
My Dear Sir Ronald: The Department has considered with care the proposals contained in your letter of August 24 concerning future economic policy with respect to the European neutrals. The Department is in general agreement with the view of your Government that after the close of hostilities in Europe there will remain many economic policy considerations concerning these neutrals which are of mutual concern to our two Governments.
There is on our part, as you know, the desire that wartime controls over international commerce should be removed as rapidly as feasible, and it is against this background that our views have been formulated. To restate the objectives toward which the Department believes our common economic policy with respect to the neutrals should be directed, the Department believes that we should make every effort to secure effective control over the disposition of export surpluses from the European neutrals, or their colonial possessions, of all scarce materials which, after the close of hostilities in Europe, will be essential to the prosecution of the war against Japan and to take all appropriate means to assure the satisfaction of the minimum relief requirements of the liberated areas. This seems to the Department the primary objective which by combined action we should seek.
In order to attain this aim, the Department agrees that it would be desirable to negotiate a limited supply-purchase agreement with each European neutral which an examination of the facts indicated was in a position to make a contribution of the nature described above. Any such supply-purchase agreement, in the Department’s opinion, should be restricted to the period prior to the end of the Pacific war or possibly for some extremely limited period thereafter. Moreover, the Department would contemplate that these supply-purchase agreements would cover only a fraction of the total import-export trade of the neutral in question.
The Department recognizes that in the cases of individual neutrals there might exist economic objectives other than materials which it [Page 141] would be to our advantage to include as desiderata in the contemplated negotiations. These might be residual economic warfare objectives possibly related to the continuance of the Proclaimed List7 at the close of hostilities in Europe, shipping assistance, or such matters as the treatment of Nazi nest-eggs.8
In return for the materials and other concessions to be made available under the supply-purchase agreements contemplated, the British and American Governments would agree to make available in stated amounts materials required by the neutral in question which would be under the control of one or both of the two Governments.
In so far as the cooperation of the neutrals with UNRRA is concerned, the Department believes that this consideration is clearly of great importance but that it should be excluded from the economic negotiations contemplated. The Department believes this object can best be dealt with through our general support in every way possible of UNRRA’s dealings with the neutrals taken on its own initiative.
The Department believes that it would be altogether proper and appropriate to include in the contemplated supply-purchase negotiations the question of being afforded all reasonable financial facilities in the execution of agreed purchases and some understanding with regard to reasonable prices as well as protection against punitive export taxes. The Department believes, however, that financial arrangements other than those described should be handled separately and not interwoven into the contemplated supply-purchase negotiations.
As will be seen from the foregoing, the Department approves in principle the negotiation of supply-purchase agreements with European neutrals where such arrangements appear suitable. It is regarded as important, however, to restrict such arrangements in the first instance to those neutrals where an exploration of the facts indicates that an agreement of this sort is appropriate and, in any case to a relatively limited number of commodities on both the supply and purchase sides. The test of inclusion for each commodity would be its scarcity or value in terms of our combined war effort or the minimum relief needs of the liberated areas.
For the accomplishment of the secondary objectives, certain of which are listed toward the end of your letter, the Department believes we should look to the European Economic Commission9 which is now the object of preliminary discussion between your Government and ours. To that body, when formed, in the Department’s opinion, properly should fall the broader questions of preventing inflation, [Page 142] obtaining some measure of equality between the standards of the neutrals as compared to our western Allies, and related matters.
On the assumption that a broad area of agreement exists between us on this entire question, the Department suggests that the next practical step would be for us jointly to tabulate and examine the facts concerning the economic contribution which each of the neutrals can make with a view to deciding with which countries and on what terms we should contemplate negotiations in the near future. At an early stage we believe that Russia and our other European Allies should be fully informed of our plans and kept advised as they develop. It may well be desirable directly to include in our negotiations with individual neutrals those Allies most closely related economically or geographically to the neutral in question. In any event, the Department believes it would be a serious mistake to afford any basis for the belief on the part of any of our Allies that our two Governments were seeking to exert an exclusive right of control over any part of the economic life of these European countries.
I shall be delighted to arrange with you an early discussion in anticipation of formulating a joint policy on this important problem.
Sincerely yours,
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A memorandum of September 12 for the files, by Mr. Merchant, stated: “I received a message from Mr. Acheson this afternoon saying that he had discussed the letter he signed and sent to Sir Ronald Campbell today on postwar economic policy toward the neutrals and that Mr. Currie [Lauchlin Currie, Deputy Administrator of the Foreign Economic Administration] had approved of it in substance. LTM.” (840.50/8–2444)
Instructions 491, 2353, 371, and 1141 of September 29 to Ankara, Bern, Lisbon, and Madrid, respectively, and 703 of September 28 to Stockholm, transmitted copies of the August 24 letter from Sir Ronald I. Campbell and the September 12 reply by Mr. Acheson for the information of the Officers in Charge of the respective American Missions.
↩ - See pp. 154 ff.↩
- See pp. 213 ff.↩
- See pp. 614 ff.↩