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Memorandum of Conversation, by the Acting Chief of the Aviation Division (Walstrom)
Mr. Gore-Booth18 called at his request relative to our aide-mémoire of January 26 asking the British for an early indication of their views on post-war aviation.
He said that before transmitting this request to London he wanted to obtain any background information which we might give him. I said there wasn’t much definite information that I could add at this time; that while we were also giving consideration to the problem, it appeared to us that the British views were a little more crystalized, or at least a definite attitude had been stated on certain points already. Therefore, any indication which the British might offer on the broader aspects of the matter would naturally be of considerable interest to us.
Mr. Gore-Booth referred to the fact that we had also approached the Canadians and frankly said that he did not know whether his Government would want to proceed without including the other Dominions as well. I said that our reference to the Canadians was [Page 367] probably due to the unconscious emphasis which we had placed on trans-Atlantic air services between Britain and the United States, in which Canada naturally would play an important role, but that what we actually had in mind was the British views on post-war aviation on a world-wide basis.
Mr. Gore-Booth asked if we had anything specific in mind in the way of their post-war objectives, and when I replied that we were merely interested in getting a summary of the British views in general, he agreed that very little more would be possible at this particular time, and that in any event he thought it well to keep both our views somewhat flexible.
Presumably we will hear from the British Embassy as soon as it gets London’s reaction to our approach.
- Paul H. Gore-Booth, Second Secretary of the British Embassy.↩