811.24/1544
Memorandum of Conversation, by the Assistant Secretary of State (Acheson)
| Participants: | Sir Frederick Phillips, Mr. Bewley,35 Mr. Opie, [Lord Halifax,] Mr. Achilles36 and Mr. Acheson |
Mr. Achilles and I called at the British Embassy at the request of Lord Halifax to discuss the memorandum regarding Lend-Lease in reverse.
Sir Frederick Phillips opened the discussions. He stated that the memorandum had been cabled to London and that London had been in touch with Canberra. The Embassy had had one cable from London but the cable regarding the discussions with Canberra had not yet been received. He stated that the attitude of the British Government as disclosed by the cable indicated a strong preference that there should be a uniform, and, I gathered, single Lend-Lease Agreement with the United Kingdom and the Dominions; that the British Government agreed in principle with the proposal of Lend-Lease in reverse; and that the British Government felt also that the application of Lend-Lease in reverse would be greatly affected by the dollar position of the Commonwealth and hoped that we could immediately enter discussions regarding the dollar position. He then asked that I comment upon his reply.
I said that it seemed to me that in making the reply the British Government had not fully apprehended either the questions asked in the memorandum or the existing situation. I then briefly reviewed the occasion for the memorandum. I pointed out that there were American forces in Australia and Northern Ireland; that in Australia these forces were actually receiving supplies and having tasks performed for them there by the Australian Government; that at present a record was being kept of these transactions and the Allied Supply Council had been set up in Australia to facilitate it but no understanding had as yet been reached regarding the financial implications; and that although I was not fully informed as to the situation in Northern Ireland, I presumed that to some extent it was similar. The question, therefore, arose as to what arrangements should be made between the United States and the United Kingdom and Australia regarding Lend-Lease in reverse and how these arrangements should be formalized. I stated that since the memoranda had been given both to the Australian Government and to the British Government, [Page 541] Mr. Evatt37 through Mr. MacGregor38 had inquired whether it would be agreeable to this Government to sign a Lend-Lease Agreement with Australia in the same terms as the one entered into with Great Britain. To that I had replied that as to the form the agreement took any form which was mutually agreeable to the Australian and British Governments would be acceptable and suggested that some form of procedure be established either joint or separate and discuss the matter further. To that we had no reply. Therefore, it seemed to me that we had a question of procedure and a question of form. Should the matter be discussed jointly with the Australian and British authorities or separately? When agreement was reached, how should it be recorded?
I said that these seemed to be wholly separate from the machinery of operation which had already been established by direction of the President, and that nothing in the memorandum was intended to suggest change in the procedure. The procedure, of course, was that established by the Joint Munitions Assignment Board, the Combined Raw Materials Board, et cetera.
Sir Frederick Phillips then asked whether I contemplated that the discussions would start with the British dollar position. I said that I did not contemplate this. The purpose of the memorandum was not to inaugurate discussions on that subject but to indicate that we fully realized that decisions reached in regard to Lend-Lease in reverse would obviously affect the British dollar position and would therefore have to be both flexible and tentative depending ultimately upon what decisions were reached by the President, or the Treasury, or other agencies designated by the President. In other words the course which I emphasized was to discuss Lend-Lease in reverse to determine what seemed to be the most desirable principles then ascertain to what extent if any these principles would affect the British dollar position and report the whole matter to our Governments. Sir Frederick Phillips appeared to concur in this procedure but stressed the importance of haste because he said that the British dollar position could not continue long without attention.
Then ensued a brief discussion as to whether the proposed understandings or agreements were to relate to the United Kingdom and Australia or whether they should at this time comprise all of the Dominions. To this I replied that it seemed to me a wholly practical matter. At the present time Lend-Lease in reverse was an immediate question with the United Kingdom and with Australia and it, therefore, [Page 542] seemed better to restrict the matter to the questions at hand and not to attempt to deal with theoretical questions which had not yet arisen.
Lord Halifax then asked what the next immediate step was. I said that I suggested that we have replies to the memoranda sent to the British Government and also to the Australian Government covering briefly results of discussions between them upon these questions: First, should our discussions be joint or separate? Second, what form should be used to record the extension of the provisions in the Lease-Lend master agreement to Australia? Should this be an identical document signed by Australia and the United States? Or should the original document be amended to include Australia and be signed by Australia? Or should there be an exchange of notes between the three countries which would operate to include Australia? Or should some other form be used? With answers to these questions I thought that we could proceed. The memoranda to the Australian and British Governments were designed to produce answers to these questions and I hoped that they would be forthcoming as soon as possible.
Lord Halifax stated that from cables it appeared that the Australian and British Governments had been conferring on the subject at Canberra and they would urge that the questions be presented and the answers given.
- Kenneth Bewley of the British Supply Council of North America.↩
- Theodore C. Achilles of the Division of European Affairs.↩
- H. V. Evatt, Australian Minister of External Affairs, at this time in the United States.↩
- Lewis Richard MacGregor, Director General, Australian Government Procurement in the United States.↩