855.24/2–1545
Memorandum of Conversation, by the Assistant Secretary of State (Dunn)
Monsieur Kronacker, Minister of Supply of Belgium, came in to see me this morning and left with me a copy of a note the Belgian Ambassador is leaving this morning with Mr. Clayton.12 This note reiterates the needs of Belgium for urgent supply of food and raw materials for industrial production.
I informed Mr. Kronacker that all the officers of the State Department, right up to the highest, were well informed on the Belgian needs and were not only sympathetic to these needs but were deeply concerned over the necessity for furthering in every way the furnishing of the food and materials needed by Belgium at this particular time. I said that our reasons for favoring action along these lines were many, running from our desire to support stable economy in Belgium and thus aid in the maintenance of a stable government through the sentimental reasons of our sympathy and attachment to the Belgian people to the need for stability behind the lines of our fighting fronts in the war against Germany and the maintenance of order and organization in the lines of communication and supply behind the Allied armies. I told the Minister that we were doing everything possible to push forward the compliance with the Belgian requests and that there was nothing whatever which had a greater priority to these needs than the actual requirements of our fighting forces. I said that this Department had expressed in the strongest terms our conviction that the needs of Belgium and the liberated countries should be met and the considerations we have brought forward were given full account by the authorities dealing with the subject of supply and shipping. I said that in my own opinion the only reason why we were not meeting fully the needs of the civilian populations in the western European liberated countries was the lack of shipping caused by the enormous drain on transportation required for our armies in France and our vast military operations in the Pacific.
[Page 90]I asked Mr. Kronacker whether any consideration had been given to the saving of tonnage by drawing upon the stockpiles in Great Britain. He said that this question had come up from time to time and he had raised it himself in England before coming over here, but that he had been told that the decision with respect to such a matter could not be made anywhere else except in Washington as the drawing upon England for supplies would depend entirely whether shipping would be available for their replacement. I remarked at this point that in view of the emergency—the difficulty of obtaining sufficient shipping to haul the goods needed all the way from the United States to Belgium—some alleviation of the situation might be accomplished by cross channel shipment from the United Kingdom to Belgium, but Mr. Kronacker seemed to think that this was a matter which could not be decided in Great Britain but would have to be decided in Washington because of the involvement of the shipping question in the whole matter.
Before leaving I again assured Mr. Kronacker of the entire sympathy and disposition of this Department and the United States Government to do everything that could humanly be done to meet their needs.
- Not printed.↩