840.50/7–2044
The Acting Secretary of State to the British Chargé (Campbell)
My Dear Sir Ronald: I received your letter of July 20 in which you discussed the procedures to be followed in starting conversations about the future work of the Combined Boards. You suggested that, as a first step, it would be desirable for the officials directly concerned with the operations of each Board to discuss between themselves the problems likely to be faced in the future by their particular Board. Such informal discussions would be continued only for a limited period of time and would form a background against which general principles could be evolved with regard to all the Boards. It was also [Page 66] your suggestion that the problem be restricted to the Combined Raw Materials Board, the Combined Food Board and the Combined Production and Resources Board.
After considering this matter, we have come to the conclusion that the procedure suggested by you is an advantageous way to start these discussions and accordingly we are communicating with the United States members of the three Boards mentioned above,81 asking them to undertake these informal discussions with the hope that tentative recommendations can be made at an early date. In your letter you suggested that the conversations might be concluded by the 15th of this month. This may be too short a time but we are suggesting that an attempt be made to conclude these preliminary discussions by that time or as soon thereafter as possible.
Sincerely yours,
- Letters dated August 8, 1944, not printed.↩