800.24/11–2644
Memorandum of Conversation, by the Acting Secretary of State
Lord Keynes called upon me at 6:45 this afternoon after spending an hour with the President. He said the President had been most [Page 79] helpful and that he had discussed with him principally the future of lend-lease and the treatment of Germany.
On the future of lend-lease the President stated that he had received a preliminary report from Secretary Morgenthau, Mr. Crowley and myself and seemed well pleased. Lord Keynes then showed me the draft of a statement56 he had prepared for Sir John Anderson to make in Parliament on November 29. He said Secretary Morgenthau and Messrs. Hopkins, Acheson and Cox had been over the statement and thought it was appropriate. I read it hurriedly and told him that I could not, of course, make a final judgment without studying it carefully but that it appeared to be in order.
Lord Keynes stated that he had received a private message from the Chancellor of the Exchequer today57 relative to lend-lease in Stage 2 and at the end of the message it was reported that the Prime Minister had sent the President a statement on Argentine meat within the last twenty-four hours which would be both satisfactory and gratifying to the President. Lord Keynes stated that the President did not mention this at tea this afternoon and apparently had not yet received it.
Lord Keynes mentioned that the President had discussed with him the economic treatment of Germany at length. He said that as he listened to the President it seemed to confirm what Lord Cherwell58 had told him had transpired at the conference at Quebec. I inquired as to whether this meant a complete agrarian economy and he stated not quite but that it went pretty far in de-industrializing the Ruhr and eliminating many of Germany’s basic industries. He stated that the President had emphasized that he did not feel there was any great hurry in reaching a final decision regarding the economic treatment of Germany; that he wanted to see what damage our bombs had done and what the general conditions were, and that he would like to go there himself and take a look before any final definite position was taken.
Lord Keynes expressed the hope that it would be possible for me to come to England soon for he thought there would be many things we could accomplish.
He said the Ministers in London were quite satisfied with the results of the lend-lease discussions although they were disappointed in not commencing exports until V–E Day. All in all, Lord Keynes seemed very cheerful and he seemed to feel that his mission here had been a success, and that London was relatively happy. He was particularly [Page 80] complimentary in the way in which the State Department had participated in the matter.
- Not found in Department files.↩
- Not printed, for content of this message, see telegram 10178, December 5, to London, vol. vii, section under Argentina entitled “Efforts of the United States to enlist the American Republics and the United Kingdom in a common policy toward Argentina.”↩
- Baron Frederick A. L. Cherwell, Personal Assistant to Prime Minister Churchill and also Paymaster General.↩