711.008 North Pacific/472
The Chargé in Canada (Simmons) to the Secretary of State
Sir: I have the honor to refer to the Department’s instruction No. 1580 of April 17, 1939, directing me to seek an interview with the Secretary of State for External Affairs and, with general reference to the conservation measures which the Governments of the United States and Canada have adopted with regard to fisheries of the North Pacific Ocean, to present to him in such manner as may be deemed effective the substance of the discussion which followed in the Department’s instruction under reference.
Pursuant to the Department’s instructions, I called this afternoon upon Dr. O. D. Skelton, Under-Secretary of State for External Affairs, and explained to him in considerable detail the point of view and desires of the United States Government as described in the instruction referred to above. I also left with Dr. Skelton a memorandum,21 a copy of which is enclosed for the Department’s convenient reference, in order that he might have the facts of the Department’s discussion of this matter available in complete form for whatever further study he may give to the problem presented.
Dr. Skelton expressed his general approval of the objectives which the Department has in mind, and made particular inquiry as to the scope of the activities of the Foreign Service officer whom the Department assigned some two years ago to make a further study of these problems. I explained to him, as far as I knew it, some of Mr. Sturgeon’s activities and described in further detail some of the problems I knew he had to deal with in this particular work. Dr. Skelton said that this whole question would of course require some study before a definite reply could be given. He assured me that he would start action on this matter immediately and would undertake to give me a reply as soon as it might be possible for him, after consultation with other officials, to determine what attitude the Canadian Government might be willing to take towards this question. He again assured me of his interest in the problems under discussion and I gathered the impression from the interview that he would personally be anxious to meet the wishes of the United States Government as far as might be feasible.
Respectfully yours,
- Not printed. This memorandum repeated, with slight verbal changes, text of instruction No. 1580, April 17, to the Chargé in Canada, printed supra, and enclosed text of telegram referred to in last paragraph of that instruction.↩