740.00112 Navicert/8/10
Verbal Statement by the Commercial Counselor of the British Embassy (Chalkley), October 16, 1939
We have reported the results of our last meeting, and have been asked to express our appreciation of the very helpful attitude your members of the Committee have adopted. Meanwhile careful consideration has been given to the suggestion made by the Secretary of State on the 4th September regarding the possibility of bringing a system of letters of assurance into operation. The result is that we have been authorized by His Majesty’s Government to make the preliminary arrangements for the institution of a Navicert system, the object being to facilitate the legitimate trade of American exporters, and we hope that the institution of this system will be welcomed and considered helpful by the United States Government. The proposal is to institute the system in the first instance in respect of exports from this country to Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Belgium and Holland, and at a later date to Finland, Estonia and Latvia. We have prepared the notice which will be issued at an early date,50 and we have copies of the application form.51
- Not printed; the notice, with slight revisions to include Estonia, Finland, Iceland, and Latvia in the list of consignee countries, was issued November 21, 1939, effective December 1, 1939. By December 22, 1939, Bulgaria, Greece, Hungary, Italy, Lithuania, Portugal, Rumania, Spain, Switzerland, Turkey, and Yugoslavia had been added to the list of consignee countries.↩
- Not printed.↩