740.0011 Stettinius Mission/63b: Telegram
The Secretary of State to the Ambassador in the United Kingdom (Winant)
3297. Esdel No. 55. For the Under Secretary and Ambassador. The Department has given consideration to Embassy’s 3187 of April 18 (Deles number 20) and has consulted with Admiral Land in preparing this reply.
With reference to the memorandum submitted by the British Embassy to the Department on March 7, the Shipping Division in a memorandum to Mr. Matthews on March 24,10 indicated approval only of the War Shipping Administration’s recommended reply. This reply indicated acceptance of the purposes and principles of the British memorandum but stated that the exact form of the organization and many matters relating to its powers and structures should be the subject of further exploration between the representatives of the two governments. Department’s 2519 of March 31 was for Embassy’s information to indicate the divergent views of the tentative recommendations of the Shipping Committee as compared with the British proposal.
Department and War Shipping Administration agree with the need to meet with the British to discuss the general principles raised by the two memoranda, Department and War Shipping Administration are of the opinion that this matter could be more expeditiously [Page 646] handled by discussions in Washington between War Shipping Administration and British Ministry of War Transport. In this connection, the British may wish to send a representative to Washington and it might be desirable to have Mr. Reed also present.
- Memorandum of March 24 not printed; H. Freeman Matthews was Deputy Director of the Office of European Affairs and a member of the Stettinius Mission to London.↩