800.796/603: Telegram
The Ambassador in the United Kingdom (Winant) to the Secretary of State
[Received March 10—6:35 a.m.]
1943. For Assistant Secretary Berle. Since sending our 1195 [1915?] March 9, this morning I had lunch with Beaverbrook. What he really wants is for you to come over here to have an informal conversation with him. I think both he and the Prime Minister believe that there are subjects of controversy between us that might easily be settled but if thrown into an international conference with some 16 other countries might be magnified and lead to misunderstandings. The question of an international authority and subsidies (he opposes subsidies beyond a fair mail rate), he understood to be matters for general discussion, but he also mentioned specifically items that he felt concerned the two countries particularly. They were (1) air bases built by American money but on British territory, (2) the Atlantic traffic, (3) South American traffic, (4) Middle Eastern traffic.
He told me in the course of our conversation that at the Dominions meeting, at which he presided, the other Dominions were not willing to have Canada have a preferred position in air conversations between the United States, Great Britain and Canada, with them left out. He told me that since we had decided to include 16 nations in the conference, without adequate preparation and any understanding between the United States and Great Britain in regard to the particular problems between them, it might be unproductive. At the same time he urged the need for prompt action. He was very frank in saying he preferred competition between three or four British companies as against the chosen instrument, but if Parliament should not be in agreement he did not propose to fight its decision.
He asked me if I had read his speech to the House of Lords. I told him I had. He said he had shown it to no one except the Prime Minister who after reading it had only made a single change, substituting for the phrase “all governments” the words “Allied Governments”.
He told me he would show me a message from you which had come in last night, but he did not do so. I asked him if radio aid to aviation, [Page 409] AFI communications were not a matter of concern in any country engaging in civil aviation after the war. He said, of course, that would be a subject of vital interest and particularly so in relation to stations in British territory.
I personally feel we cannot over emphasize the value of radio aids in post war civil aviation. I am sending you a summary of a speech by Sir Robert Watson-Watt51 at the recently concluded Empire Technical Aviation Conference. I was the only person present outside the British and Dominions representatives.
- Vice Controller of Communications Equipment, British Ministry of Aircraft Production; also Scientific Adviser on Telecommunications, British Air Ministry. Text of the speech was transmitted in telegram 1975, March 10, from London; not printed.↩