811.0145/8–345
The Secretary of State to the Secretary of the Interior (Ickes)
My Dear Mr. Secretary: I refer to my letter of July 5, 1945, in which reply was made to your letter of June 28, 1945 to the Honorable Edward R. Stettinius, Jr., relating to the proposed Proclamations and Executive Orders on the subject of the resources of the Continental Shelf and Coastal Fisheries. You will recall my suggestion that before action is taken you and I should meet with Senator O’Mahoney, Senator Connally, and perhaps other Senators from the Foreign Relations and Public Lands Committees. Since talking with you Saturday my attention has been called to the fact that the Department has now received a note from the British Embassy, a copy of which is enclosed,71 putting forward the desirability of an international arrangement
“whereby all jurisdiction over oil exploration and exploitation in drillable areas beyond and adjacent to the territorial waters of the United States should be exercised by the United States Government and, reciprocally, that similar operations in drillable areas beyond and adjacent to the territorial waters of the Bahamas, and of the Turks and Caicos islands which are dependencies of Jamaica, should be exercised by the Governments of these Colonies.”
It is further stated in the note that the British Embassy would be glad to discuss the matter in further detail with the competent authorities of this Government.
Conformably to the memorandum approved by President Roosevelt on March 31, and subsequently approved by President Truman, the draft statement of policy with regard to the mineral resources of the Continental Shelf was informally communicated by the Department to the Missions in Washington of the Governments assumed to be interested in the matter. A copy of the draft statement was handed to the British Embassy on May 9, 1945, and at that time an extended oral explanation of the views of this Government was made. The note under reference of the British Embassy does not advert directly to the draft statement above mentioned, but a careful study of the note would seem to warrant the conclusion that the British Government is now prepared to take a position wholly in line with the principles set forth in our draft statement of policy with regard to the resources of the Continental Shelf.
In addressing itself to the question of the character of the reply to be made to the British Embassy, the Department has considered whether it would be desirable to abandon the procedure previously [Page 1527] envisaged, that is, that of proclaiming the United States position along the lines of the draft statement of policy, and entering into bilateral arrangements with interested countries such as that now proposed by the British Embassy. Another procedure, which the Department is inclined to favor, would be for the United States to proclaim its position and subsequently support such position by bilateral arrangements. In either case it would seem desirable first to obtain the views of the Senators previously mentioned.72
I would appreciate receiving an expression of your views on this matter.
Sincerely yours,