266. Memorandum of the Fifth Meeting of the Special Committee To Investigate Crude Oil Imports, Washington, July 23, 19571
PARTICIPANTS
- Secretary of Commerce Weeks, Chairman
- Secretary of Treasury Humphrey
- Secretary-designate of Treasury Anderson
- Secretary of Interior Seaton
- Acting Attorney General Rogers
- Deputy Secretary of Defense Quarles
- Under Secretary of Labor O’Connell
- Mr. Gerald Morgan, Counsel to the President
- Dr. Arthur Flemming, Consultant
- Assistant Secretary of Commerce Mueller
- Representative of Office of Defense Mobilization
- Mr. Loftus Becker, Legal Adviser, Department of State
- Mr. Willis C. Armstrong, Acting Assistant Secretary of State for Economic Affairs
The entire meeting was devoted to drafting and redrafting the proposed report of the committee, beginning with the conclusions and recommendations. Secretary Seaton suggested elimination of [Page 716] reference to the “current level of imports”, as being a threat to national security. He said that nobody from the Oil and Gas Division of the Department of the Interior would testify that the current level would impair the national security, although they all had a hunch that the proposed level might. There was considerable debate on this point, which resulted in the conclusion that the committee would not make a finding that the national security was impaired by the current level of imports within the meaning of Section 7 of the Trade Agreements Extension Act of 1955. It was felt preferable to make a finding that the present and proposed level threatened the national security to the point where a limitation on imports was required, but that there should be no formal finding, because of the implication of the need for mandatory action if such a finding were made. A primary factor in the conclusion not to invoke Section 7 was the point made by the Acting Attorney General that a finding might imply a preparedness to proceed with mandatory action. He noted that no plan for mandatory action had been developed, and that the proposed voluntary plan might not be in accordance with the Constitution if it were tried on a mandatory basis, because of the discrimination between East and West Coasts.
There was a substantive discussion with respect to the figures for imports into District V. The report contained the figure 290,000 barrels a day, but the Oil and Gas Division had informed Secretary Seaton that their figure for the difference between consumption and production in the district was 250,000 barrels a day. It was necessary to refer in the discussion to Mr. Hoover’s memorandum to the Secretary of State regarding a new estimate for District V which included the figure of 274,000 barrels a day, plus 13,000 barrels allowance for addition to stocks. Dr. Flemming agreed to straighten this out with Interior.
There was also a substantive discussion of the question of procedure for entrance of newer importers into the market. It was decided to have the report refer to the idea of having older importers “move over”, so that the Secretary of the Interior could have this as a point to rely upon in dealing with companies.
There was no time for discussion of the national security section of the report, and members were asked to telephone their comments to Secretary Weeks’ office before 10:00 a.m. on the following day.
The Chairman said that, if no difficulties with the national security section developed, there would be no need for a further meeting. The report would be presented to the President within a day or so. Mr. Becker and Mr. Armstrong made it clear that they would have to review with Secretary Dulles the new version of the conclusions and recommendations, and that the Department expected a period of at least 48 hours after the President had approved [Page 717] the report before publication, so that representatives of other governments could be consulted and informed.
- Source: Department of State, Central Files, 411.006/7–2357. Secret. Drafted by Armstrong. Sent to Herter under cover of a memorandum of July 29 from Fisher Howe.↩