800.796/11–2344: Telegram
The Acting Secretary of State to the Ambassador in the United Kingdom (Winant)
9858. Personal for the Ambassador from Hickerson and Achilles.16 Referring to the final sentence of your 10305 November 23, the Department [Page 587] of State has been in exactly the same position and we know just how you feel. We hope that you will tell the Prime Minister that the President feels that from the standpoint of our common good this simply has to be settled at once and an agreement achieved. Everyone here thinks that the British are wrong and even unreasonable in insisting that the Escalator Clause apply only to traffic between terminals and not to traffic between intermediate points along the route. This intermediate traffic may well be vital to routes. The British have simply got to give way on this point and we look to you to make them do it.
We understand from the White House that the President will probably send you in the course of the day a telegram in regard to the Conference and that this message will probably include a further message from the President to the Prime Minister. [Hickerson and Achilles.]
- John D. Hickerson and Theodore C. Achilles, Chief and Assistant Chief, respectively, of the Division of British Commonwealth Affairs.↩