Foreign Relations of the United States, Diplomatic Papers, 1944, General: Economic and Social Matters, Volume II

800.796/597

The First Secretary of the British Embassy (Wright) to the Assistant Secretary of State (Berle)

Ref. 56/82/44

Washington, February 29, 1944.

My Dear Mr. Berle: Following our conversation on February 23rd, I am enclosing an extract of a report sent to London by the Ambassador giving the substance of our conversation and of your memorandum of February 23rd. We agreed by telephone that in reporting to London, the Ambassador should substitute this record for the text of the memorandum, since the latter might give London the wrong impression that the United States Government were proceeding without waiting for a reply from London.

If on reading over the enclosed text there are any points you would like to raise, I hope you will let me know.

Yours sincerely,

Michael Wright

[Enclosure]

Extract From Report Sent to London

If the three Dominion Governments were invited, it would be impossible for the United States Government not to ask Brazil and probably Mexico also. They had been considering for the past two days what they could suggest to meet our wishes, and now submitted the following proposals in an attempt to do so. Their idea is that instead of a joint discussion between the powers concerned, conversations between the United States Government and representatives of the United Kingdom Government and the Canadian Government should take place in Washington as bilateral conversations between representatives of the United States Government on the one hand and of the other two Governments respectively on the other. These would take place as far as possible simultaneously. The United States Government would ask the Soviet and Chinese Governments whether they would agree to engage in similar bilateral conversations with the United States Government in Washington at about the same time. The United States Government would extend similar invitations to the Australian, New Zealand and South African Government, and to the Brazilian and probably to the Mexican Government; and it would probably be necessary to do the same with the Netherlands Government and the French National Committee (if a suitable formula for inviting the latter could be found). The talks with the Governments other than the United Kingdom, Canada, Russia and China would, as far as physically possible, be simultaneous but might have to overlap or to be a few days or more later. The United States Government would keep each Government informed of the talks with the others. The announced purpose of these bilateral exchanges of views would be to pave the way for the holding of a United Nations civil aviation conference at the earliest possible moment at which it appeared that there existed a sufficiently broad area of common understanding among a sizable nucleus of countries. It was still hoped that talks could begin about the third week in March, and the United Nations Conference before the end of the summer.

The United States Government hoped that they would at least be able to work out a basis for future air relations with the British Commonwealth, which could be put into force, even if, contrary to their wish and expectation, delay or difficulties should arise in the conclusion of a general United Nations agreement.

The United States Government presumed that in speaking of “a full international conference” we had in mind a United Nations conference, and were not thinking of including neutral governments. If, however, we wished to include any particular neutral governments, such as the Portuguese Government, they felt sure we could find some formula to bring them in without admitting all neutral governments.

The United States Government presumed that the United Kingdom Government would speak for all parts of the Empire, including India, other than the self-governing Dominions.