861.24/1751a
Memorandum by the Acting Secretary of State and the Foreign Economic Administrator (Crowley) to President Roosevelt
We enclose for your consideration a draft of telegram56 proposing a general line of policy with reference to the Fourth Protocol on Soviet supplies, applicable also to uncompleted parts of the Third Protocol. We may wish to apply this policy in the case of our plans with certain other countries receiving lend-lease aid. At this stage of the war, we cannot assume that the war will stop at any fixed time. We believe, therefore, that we must act and plan as if the war were going on indefinitely, so as to assure the uninterrupted flow of supplies needed for the war. We believe that there should be maintained, however, the present limit (with its exceptions) of eighteen months from the time of presenting a request as the period within which the materials can be delivered and installed.
We propose also, in the interest of an orderly liquidation of the lend-lease program, to enter into separate payment contracts with the lend-lease governments permitting the delivery of the uncompleted parts of such programs on non-lend-lease terms after the termination of hostilities. When regular facilities for post-war credits have been established, it may be that these demobilization contracts could be taken over and refinanced. Certainly these arrangements are not conceived of as in any way a substitute for methods of helping to finance the main job of reconstruction.
If you agree with the purport of this message, we suggest that it be sent to Mr. Harriman in Moscow for his guidance, and given to the Protocol Committee as a policy directive for its immediate use in preparing appropriate schedules of supplies. At the same time, we propose to proceed at once to the negotiation with Soviet representatives in Washington of an appropriate payment-contract under the authority of Section 3(c) of the Lend-Lease Act,57 supplementing the Master Agreement, to cover the period of possible deliveries on certain categories of the Protocol schedules after the termination of hostilities. In these negotiations we shall, of course, consult with officials of the Treasury Department and keep in close touch with the new Committee on the financing of reconstruction plans as to appropriate credit terms in the contracts.
As soon as these negotiations with the Soviet have taken suitable preliminary shape, we may wish to obtain the advice of the Foreign Affairs Committee of the House of Representatives and the Foreign [Page 1060] Relations Committee of the Senate on the matter. We hope that enough progress can be made to permit a consideration of these problems during the hearings on the extension of the Lend-Lease Act or the appropriations under that Act.
Leo T. Crowley