857.24/66
The Norwegian Ambassador (Morgenstierne) to the Secretary of State
The Ambassador of Norway presents his compliments to His Excellency the Secretary of State and has the honor to acknowledge the receipt of the Secretary’s note of August 14, 1942, regarding Norwegian supply purchases.
The contents of the Secretary’s note have been submitted to the Norwegian Government and the Ambassador has been authorized to reply as follows:
- 1.
- The Royal Norwegian Government is willing to accept, as a provisional undertaking, the principles laid down in the Secretary’s note of August 14th. The Norwegian Government assumes that it has not been the intention of the appropriate United States Authorities to demand that every specific contract should be submitted beforehand. This would be unfeasible, and could therefore not be accepted. But the Norwegian Government would be willing to inform the Department of State of the approximate quantity of every merchandise the Government desires to buy, and, when possible, from which country the merchandise would be purchased. The Norwegian Government assumes that in cases where consent to a desired purchase has been refused by the United States Government, the reasons will be given and that, when a purchase has been consented to, the collaboration of American authorities with a view to a speedy consummation of the transaction may be counted on. Furthermore, the Royal Government reserves the right, when consent to buy a specific commodity has not been given, to take the matter up again after a reasonable time.
- 2.
- A schedule of merchandise already delivered and now in the Government’s possession is being prepared by the Ministry of Supplies and will be presented to the Department of State as soon as possible.
[Here follow paragraphs 3 and 4 containing information on specific [Page 138] commodities the United States Government wished to obtain from the Norwegian Government and which the Norwegian Government wished to obtain from the United States Government.]
In carrying out his Government’s instructions to bring the above observations to the knowledge of the United States Government, the Ambassador of Norway has been instructed to point out that the Norwegian Government regards the arrangement as a tentative one. The Royal Government trusts that, as a provisional arrangement, it will prove to be successful, since both Parties will be interested in a mutually satisfactory result. If, however, the Norwegian Government should come to the conclusion that the matter of securing absolutely essential supplies for the hard-tried people of Norway requires other means of solution, the arrangement now contemplated can not be regarded as definitely binding, and the Ambassador will then return to this matter.