Foreign Relations of the United States: Diplomatic Papers, 1944, The British Commonwealth and Europe, Volume III

800.24/1714a

The Secretary of State to the British Ambassador ( Halifax )

Washington , June 20, 1944.

Excellency: The Secretaries of War and Navy have called to my attention certain problems with regard to the assignment of munitions by the Washington and London Munitions Assignments Boards and the transfer thereof to third countries. I have discussed these problems with the President.⁷⁵

As you recall, the Munitions Assignments Boards were set up by the Prime Minister⁷⁶ and the President in the following terms:⁷⁷

• “1. The entire munitions resources of Great Britain and the United States will be deemed to be in a common pool, about which the fullest information will be interchanged.
• “2. Committees will be formed in Washington and London under the Combined Chiefs of Staff in a manner similar to the South-West Pacific Agreement.⁷⁸ These Committees will advise on all assignments both in quantity and priority whether to Great Britain and the United States or other of the United Nations in accordance with strategic needs.”

In the assignment of munitions the objective as seen by the President and the Prime Minister was clearly to utilize all available resources, regardless of origin, for the most effective prosecution of the war. To do this they established the Munitions Assignments Boards. It is my understanding, however, that United Kingdom representatives on the Munitions Assignments Board have taken the position that their Government is free, without obtaining the concurrence of the United States, to dispose of any weapons having United Kingdom origin, even though the availability of such weapons for disposition resulted directly from the transfer on Lend-Lease of substantial amounts of identical or similar articles.

In order to settle the questions of interpretation and procedure which have arisen, it is the policy of the American Government that:

1. The two governments shall consult and concert their actions before making transfers of munitions to other countries.

2. Transfers to third countries of munitions of a kind which either government has received from the other shall be by agreement between the appropriate authorities of the two governments.

The Munitions Assignments Boards in London and Washington would appear to be the appropriate machinery for carrying out the foregoing.

I should appreciate being informed that the policy of this Government as stated above is concurred in by the Government of Great Britain.

Accept [etc.]

Cordell Hull

75. Memorandum by the Secretary of State to President Roosevelt and reply, June 17, 1944, not printed.
76. Winston S. Churchill, British Prime Minister.
77. For complete text of the statement on the Munitions Assignments Boards, see Department of State Bulletin, January 31, 1942, p. 87.
78. Reference here is to the Agreement at the First Washington Conference to form a unified command in the South-East Asia Theater; correspondence on this subject is scheduled for publication in a subsequent volume of Foreign Relations. See also Maurice Matloff and Edwin M. Snell, Strategic Planning For Coalition Warfare, 1941–1942, in the official Army history United States Army in World War II: The War Department, issued by the Office of the Chief of Military History, Department of the Army (Washington, Government Printing Office, 1953), pp. 123–126.