Editorial Note

In early July 1947, Edward Campion Acheson was designated Special Representative of the President with the rank of Minister to head an American mission whose object was to negotiate with various northern European countries for the utilization of surplus foods for use in the United States and British zones of occupation of Germany. This mission, which was recommended by the Secretary of State and Secretary of War Patterson, was in furtherance of the recommendations made by former President Hoover, following his survey of economic conditions in Germany, that the exportable surplus of fish currently available in Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Belgium, the Netherlands, and Iceland, be made available to western Germany. During the summer and early autumn of 1947, the Acheson mission visited Berlin, London, Oslo, Stockholm, Copenhagen, Brussels, The Hague, and Reykjavik. Although the tangible results of the mission were not as great as hoped for at the outset, agreement was reached between the United States, the United Kingdom, and Iceland in December 1947 for the purchase of up to 70,000 tons of fish from Iceland for delivery in western Germany in 1948. Documentation on the Acheson mission is included in file 862.5018.