Foreign Relations of the United States, 1948, General; the United Nations, Volume I, Part 2

560.AL/3–448: Telegram

The Ambassador in the United Kingdom (Douglas) to the Secretary of State

secret   us urgent
niact

London, March 4, 1948—1 p. m.

860. Final British position ITO charter established this morning at conference Cripps and Ambassador Douglas. (Unnumbered March 3 from Havana, repeated Department 270).

1. Accept Article 15 provided interpretive note included in text as in Havana’s numbered paragraph 1.

2. Cripps handed Ambassador formal aide-mémoire¹ of which substance cabled Embtel 8 to Havana, 836 to Department. Essentially this is strong plea for clarification and simplification paragraphs 1 (b) and 1 (c), which USDel states cannot be considered. Nevertheless this represents most desirable solution from British viewpoint.

3. As final possible alternative Cripps suggested following text to be inserted at end of first sentence of paragraph 1 (c) of Article 23: “provided that if a member was limited on the 15th February 1948 in such deviation by reason of any agreement with another country, such member shall, for the purposes of this paragraph, be entitled to do anything which, [but] for such limitation, could have done on that date”. This was drafted by Cripps personally in early hours of morning. He indicated that if this additional concession to protect British position were made he would accept balance Article 23 in present draft, since he recognizes US political difficulties especially if Article 23 were to be redrafted at this stage of conference.

4. British officials indicate report dated February 25 of working party on Article 23 numbered paragraph eight contains an interpretation which would be of great value in London in meeting political problem in Parliament. They regard it as very important for UK to have this statement on record as part of conference report deemed to have been approved in the plenary.

5. Embassy comments that Cripps offer made on his personal initiative overriding BOT officials who strongly favor clarification formula. It is obvious that Cripps in drafting this clause is attempting remove special disability of UK under Article 23 in view of concurrent limitations applicable under Section 9 of US loan agreement and parallel provisions of Canadian loan agreement.² Relief from this disability is the price he asks for acceptance of the other aspects of Article 23 which presents serious political difficulties to UK.

Douglas

1. Not printed.
2. For documentation regarding the Anglo-American financial agreement, see Foreign Relations, 1945, vol. vi, pp. 1 ff., and ibid., 1947, vol. iii, pp. 1 ff.