800.6363/12–2744
Memorandum by the Secretary of State to President Roosevelt
Misunderstandings have arisen concerning the purposes and scope of the Anglo-American Petroleum Agreement which, as you know, was submitted on August 24, 1944, to the Senate for its advice and [Page 127] consent to ratification. Senator Connally has publicly stated his belief that the Agreement would not be ratified in its present form. Opposition has been expressed by certain sections of the American petroleum industry indicating concern lest implementation of the Agreement might lead to the mandatory regulation of its operations.
Therefore it is the intention of the State Department to recommend that you request the Senate to return the Agreement in order that consideration may be given to a revision of the Agreement in order to remove grounds for misunderstanding.36
We have discussed this with Senator Connally and will send you a definite recommendation in the next few days.
- On January 10, 1945, President Roosevelt requested the Senate to return the Agreement to the State Department. There followed conversations between representatives of industry and government in which the misunderstandings were removed and changes agreed upon. Then on September 17 a new Anglo-American Conference was opened in London, out of which came a new agreement signed on September 24. This agreement, too, was submitted to the United States Senate for ratification but it met with no more success than the first and on July 5, 1952, by a Joint Resolution it was returned to the State Department.↩