Office of the Historian

840.50/7–944: Telegram

The Ambassador in the United Kingdom (Winant) to the Secretary of State

London, July 9, 1944—5 p.m.
[Received July 9—1:30 p.m.]

5419. I hope very much that you will give your personal support to my 5413 of July 871 and to my 5412 of July 8 (Cornea series 68).72 I feel strongly that Allied success on the battlefronts of Europe obligates us to expedite the work of the European Advisory Commission.

There is another matter that deeply concerns me. For over 2 years or ever since the adoption of lend-lease legislation by the Congress and the acceptance of Article VII by the United Nations, I have urged you to send over representatives to discuss with the British Government the implications of this Article. Because of the internal political situation at home or the military situation abroad, or because of reasons unknown to me, you have felt that even informal conferences were not timely and nothing has come of my requests. The Civil Service here and other officials responsible for developing an economic policy have become impatient at the continued postponement in the Cabinet of consideration to what many of them believe to be primary economic issues affecting postwar problems. The Prime Minister as I have explained to you in previous messages is reluctant to raise points which divide the coalition and create schism within the conservative ranks. I have not been able to get any support to date for informal conferences in Washington on these questions by [Page 54] members of the British Monetary Delegation before they return to London. There is a slowly-growing assumption here that we also are indifferent, which has weakened our support and strengthened the opposition. I am personally convinced that whatever necessary things we must do to establish world police power, it cannot be lasting unless we can also reach agreement on a world economy that permits employment and orderly economic progress.

I believe if you could send Acheson73 and Hawkins here, it would open up a constructive approach to a successful settlement of those policies which you have so long and so ably advocated.

Winant
  1. Not printed.↩
  2. Vol. i, p. 241.↩
  3. Dean Acheson, Assistant Secretary of State.↩