Editorial Note
Documentation on this Agreement, which was entered into on December 9, 1944, is printed in Foreign Relations, 1944, volume II, pages 740 ff. For a statement on legal aspects of the Agreement by Under Secretary of State Clayton on February 6, 1947, before the Subcommittee on Ships Sales, Charters, and Lay-ups of the Committee on Merchant Marine and Fisheries, House of Representatives, see Department of State Bulletin, February 23, 1947, pages 347–348.
On November 1, 1946, Sir Cyril Hurcomb submitted to the United States Maritime Commission on behalf of the United Kingdom certain detailed proposals “for winding up the arrangements for bareboat chartering of ships covered by the agreements recorded in the exchange of letters between Lord Leathers and Admiral Land dated November 24, 1944, and in exchange of letters between the Acting Administrator, War Shipping Administration, and the Secretary of the British Merchant Shipping Mission of the 15th February, 1946.” These proposals were later amended by the British Embassy’s note of February 3, 1947. In a reply dated March 13 the United States Government submitted certain “proposals for the disposal or redelivery of the vessels presently under the Land-Leathers Agreement,” and these proposals were accepted by the United Kingdom on March 25. On May 13 the Department of State, taking note of these exchanges and various specific points mentioned in the British note of March 25, informed the British Embassy that the United States Maritime Commission had instructed its staff to do everything necessary to carry out the arrangements. Documentation on the termination of the Agreement, not printed, is in Department of State file No. 800.85.