Office of the Historian

840.50/3449: Telegram

The Secretary of State to the Minister in Australia (Johnson)

Washington, January 17, 1944—7 p.m.

7. Please inform appropriate authorities, in reply to query mentioned in your 4, January 8, that Canada was invited for brief Article VII discussions because of possibility for Canadians to arrive, owing to proximity of Ottawa, while we were awaiting information regarding arrangements of Russian and Chinese Governments for sending delegations to Washington. Russian and Chinese Governments were invited, simultaneously with the United Kingdom, to send delegations to discuss informally Article VII problems; but no definitive arrangement yet made by Russians or Chinese, although anticipated momentarily.

In your discretion, you might indicate that the Department proposes to have such conversations with all principal countries subscribing to Article VII, including Australia; that Department is gratified at Australia’s interest and has informally kept in touch on general pertinent developments with McCarthy12 and Fletcher, who represented Australia in the similar Commonwealth discussions in London last summer.

Hull
  1. E. McCarthy, Assistant Secretary, Australian Department of Commerce and Agriculture.↩