840.50/8–1144: Telegram
The Secretary of State to the Ambassador in the United Kingdom (Winant)
7598. With reference to conversations in Washington with Richard Law (reDepts 6036, July 31) and your conversations with Ronald (reEmbs 6473, August 11) regarding Article VII talks, we sent letter to the President on September 285 suggesting that he seek support of Prime Minister for resumption of conversations about the middle of [Page 77] October. Conversations would cover commercial policy, commodity agreement policy, cartel policy and state trading.
We have been giving consideration to the procedure involved and have reached the following conclusions:
As soon as the preparatory work here has been completed, which it is expected will be about the middle of October, you and your staff, including Hawkins,86 assisted by a few competent people sent quietly to London for the purpose would begin exploratory discussions with a view to comparing the trends of thought of the two Governments since the last talks were held, and ascertaining the areas of agreement and the points at issue. We feel that any publicity at this stage should be avoided. We would determine, in the light of the measure of agreement reached in these informal talks, and other developments, what the next steps should be.
Please discuss the foregoing with the appropriate British authorities and advise us whether the arrangements contemplated are satisfactory to them.
If agreeable to you, Hawkins would remain here until about October 15 to assist in the preparatory work, but even though this work had not been completed, he would proceed to London at that time to take up his duties in the Embassy. These duties would initially include the carrying on of the preliminary exploratory discussions with the British above referred to.