Foreign Relations of the United States, 1946, General; the United Nations, Volume I

Department of State Atomic Energy Files

Memorandum on Allocation by the British Members of the Combined Policy Committee⁴¹

top secret

[Washington, undated.]

At its meeting on July 4th, 1945, the Combined Policy Committee determined that while the war lasts all uranium supplies received by the Combined Development Trust for the joint account of the United States and the United Kingdom should be allocated to the United States Government for the production of weapons for use against the common enemy. The Committee’s attention, having been called to the fact that this policy will leave Great Britain without any reserve of supplies of this material for the future use, the Committee noted this statement of the British members and agreed that insofar as the material received by the Trust exceeds the quantity required for the production of weapons against the common enemy in the present war, it should be held by the Combined Development Trust to be disposed of or otherwise dealt with in accordance with paragraph 3(1) of the Agreement of 13th June, 1944, and that in making future allocations all relevant factors should be reviewed.

2. Since this decision related to “the production of weapons against the common enemy in the present war” it now needs to be reviewed.

3. The principles on which it is proposed that allocations of raw materials should be made in future are set out in paragraph 4 of the revised memorandum of Agreement at present under consideration by the Committee. But in the opinion of the British members, the Committee should take a decision in respect of the interim period between V–J Day and February 28th. It is therefore suggested that all supplies received since V–J Day should now be allocated to meet the requirements of the three Governments, as approved by the Combined Policy Committee, after consideration of representations from each member Government. The unallocated balance (if any) should be held by the Combined Development Trust.

4. The British members suggest that the principle that the supplies allocated by the Combined Policy Committee should be paid for by the Government receiving the material, should be applied to this allocation.

5. It is further proposed that the Combined Policy Committee should also consider the allocations for the supplies which it is anticipated will be received for the ten months from March 1st to December 31st, 1946.

6. Finally, the British members wish to draw attention to the fact that, as the programmes of atomic energy development in the United States of America, the United Kingdom and Canada progress, raw materials may well become in short supply. The Combined Policy Committee may therefore wish to decide that immediate consideration should be given to any possibilities of a more economical use of material.

[Annex]

Draft Proposal on the Subject of Allocation

It is proposed that in application of the principles laid down in the paper circulated at the last meeting of the Combined Policy Committee by the British members on the subject of allocation, a decision should be reached on the following basis, both in respect of the interim period since V–J Day and for the period up to December 31st, 1946.

2. The raw material supplies received from the territory with which the Combined Development Trust is concerned should be divided on a 50–50 basis between the United States of America on the one hand and the United Kingdom and Canada on the other. This basis corresponds with the basis of the Trust’s financial arrangements.

3. It is considered that this basis of allocation should cover not merely the materials received during the remaining period of 1946, but also all the material received since V–J Day. In accordance with the decision of the Committee of July 4th such material was to be held by the Combined Development Trust.

41. This document was considered at the Combined Policy Committee Meeting of April 15; for the minutes of that meeting, see p. 1227.