Office of the Historian

800.6363/1–2944

The Secretary of State to the Secretary of the Interior (Ickes)24

Washington, January 31, 1944.

My Dear Mr. Secretary: I wish to advise you of my approval of the outline of principles of the proposed agreement, dated January 24, [Page 23] 1944, covering the proposed pipeline from the Persian Gulf area to a port on the eastern Mediterranean, with the revisions made therein at the meeting of the Directors of the Petroleum Reserves Corporation on January 27, 1944.25

Sincerely yours,

Cordell Hull
  1. This letter was addressed to Mr. Ickes in his capacity as President of the Petroleum Reserves Corporation.↩
  2. At a meeting of the Board of Directors of the Petroleum Reserves Corporation on February 5, 1944, Mr. Ickes submitted an additional paragraph (No. 11) which had been drafted at President Roosevelt’s direction. Mr. Rayner notified Mr. Ickes the same day of the approval of the additional paragraph by the Secretary of State (800.6363/2–544). The date January 24 was retained on the outline as finally approved. A summary was released on February 6, 1944, by the Department of the Interior (800.6363/2–644); for substance of the press release, see telegram 437, March 3, 1 p.m., to Cairo, p. 24. The texts of the outline and of the press release are printed in the Congressional Record, vol. 90, pt. 2, p. 1466.↩