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Service officers, and political scientists, with junior research and stenographic assistants.1 The new Division would constitute the secretariat and principal research agency both for the Inter-Departmental Group to Consider Post-War Economic Problems and Policies and, in the political field, the Departmental Advisory Committee on Problems of Foreign Relations when again active. Following approval by Secretary Hull, the Division was established February 3, 1941, as projected. Mr. Pasvolsky was designated its Chief, while continuing to act as Special Assistant to the Secretary. The Departmental Order issued by Secretary Hull was kept confidential in accord with the general policy of secrecy then necessitated in many fields of the Department's work by reason of the tense international situation.

The question of reviving the Advisory Committee on Problems of Foreign Relations had come up in the consideration of the establishment of the research division. However, the same causes that had brought about the Committee's inactivity and the tapering off of the work of the Inter-Departmental Group on Economic Problems and Policies continued to operate. In view of the Committee members' increasing preoccupation with current problems and of the numerous shifts of members to the new defense undertakings, the practical possibility of reviving the Advisory Committee along its old lines appeared doubtful. The difficulty of carrying on work of such a high-policy level on a relatively unorganized basis was also a deterrent factor.

At the same time pressure to arrange for systematic discussion increased. Not only were events during the early months of 1941 enlarging the demands of current problems, but the very consideration accorded these problems was leading to wider bases for American postwar policies. The first wider basis was provided by the President in his annual message to the Congress, January 6, 1941, when in defining the objective of a secure future, he stated:

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we look forward to a world founded upon four essential human freedoms. "The first is freedom of speech and expression-everywhere in the world. "The second is freedom of every person to worship God in his own way-everywhere in the world.

"The third is freedom from want-which, translated into world terms, means economic understandings which will secure to every nation a healthy peacetime life for its inhabitants-everywhere in the world.

"The fourth is freedom from fear-which, translated into world

The entire Departmental personnel for the fiscal year ending June 1940 totaled but 1,009-only 35 more than the year before. The Foreign Service had risen only 389 in the same period, to a total of 4,119.

'See appendix 22.

terms, means a world-wide reduction of armaments to such a point and in such a thorough fashion that no nation will be in a position to commit an act of physical aggression against any neighbor— anywhere in the world.

"That is no vision of a distant millennium. It is a definite basis for a kind of world attainable in our time and generation." 3

From that time on, human freedoms were fundamental in any consideration of a future world order based on cooperation among free countries.

In the same address the President had requested the passage of legislation authorizing lend-lease. After comprehensive debate on American foreign policy, the desired legislation was approved in Congress by a vote substantially nonpartisan and was signed March 11. While implementation of the act began immediately, negotiation of the necessary international agreements, even in the preliminary form of those with American republics, took place more slowly. These agreements, when made, had significant bearing on postwar policy, particularly on economic policy. That with Great Britain, which had the most decisive effect in this respect and which became the model finally for all agreements, was not completed for almost a year. Responsibility for the Department's work on this matter was vested primarily in the Division of Trade Agreements and related interdepartmental bodies. Although the economic section of the new Division of Special Research took part in this work, it was undertaken chiefly through the usual Department channels and is not, therefore, described in detail here.

The beginning of the year also saw the first evidences of another development that was to have a fundamental effect on postwar policy. The Department received information that Germany intended to attack the Soviet Union. This fact was communicated to the Soviet Government during a series of conversations between Under Secretary Welles and the Soviet Ambassador, Mr. Constantin Oumansky. On January 21, 1941, the Ambassador was informed that this Government had decided to lift the moral embargo applied to the Soviet Union during its war with Finland.*

In still other respects, the scene of war was broadening. In February, Germany made military and economic demands on Yugoslavia. Britain mined the waters of Singapore. Japan's Foreign Minister stated that Oceania must be ceded to the Asiatics.

In March, Bulgaria and next Yugoslavia joined the tripartite pact.

'H. Doc. 1, 77th Cong., 1st sess., serial vol. 10598.

'The moral embargo had been imposed as a matter of official policy to curtail exports to the Soviet Union in the absence of any legislative authorization for their prohibition. It took the form of a public request by the Government to exporters to forego certain of their legal rights and thus deprive certain states of supplies as an indication of this country's disapproval of their actions.

The Yugoslav Government taking this action was promptly overthrown by a domestic coup d'état. Though still fighting, Italy had failed to defeat Greece. The stage was set for a German thrust into the Balkans. In this month, also, additional information of intended German attack was given to the Soviet Ambassador by the Department.

In April, Germany, Italy, Bulgaria, and soon Hungary attacked Yugoslavia, with which the Soviet Union had just concluded a Treaty of Friendship and Non-Aggression. British troops entered Iraq after a pro-Axis coup d'état had occurred there. In Greece organized resistance was broken after German invasion, and British forces there were compelled to withdraw. In the Far East a neutrality pact was signed between Japan and the Soviet Union. The United States sent reenforcements to the Philippines, made an agreement with the Minister of Denmark on the defense of Greenland, and reached a broad arrangement with Canada for production and exchange of defense articles.

In May, Japan undertook to guarantee the new boundaries between French Indochina and Thailand; Rudolph Hess flew on a mysterious errand to Scotland; the Vichy Government in France committed itself to further economic collaboration with Germany; and German troops were advancing in Libya toward the Egyptian border. Sinkings by German naval action, many of which occurred in Western Hemisphere waters, continued at a grave rate. On May 27 President Roosevelt, warning that war was approaching the brink of the Western Hemisphere itself, proclaimed the existence of an unlimited national emergency and announced that American naval patrols had been extended in the Atlantic to assist in safeguarding deliveries to Britain."

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As these new expansions of the war occurred, the over-all organization of preparation to meet postwar problems came again, early in April, under consideration in the Department of State. By then all organized postwar efforts at a policy level had come to an end. The main lines of progress were in connection with the organization and staffing of the Division of Special Research. Some economic studies were under way, largely on long-range problems of lend-lease. Political studies had not yet been started. Three staff members, who worked exclusively in the economic field, were on duty: H. Julian Wadleigh and Richard Eldridge, drawn from the Division of Trade Agreements in the Department, and Miss Ruth B. Russell, from the Brookings Institution. It was not until May 19 that an officer in the political field, Harley Notter, was assigned to the new work, and he did not report for duty from the Department's Division of the American Republics until the end of that month.

"Department of State Bulletin, IV, 647, 654.

Meanwhile, on April 11, Mr. Pasvolsky suggested to Mr. Welles that the time was opportune for reviving the Advisory Committee on Problems of Foreign Relations as a single body without division into subcommittees. It would have two principal functions. It would consider the organization of peace, with the Division of Special Research supplying the necessary papers for discussion, and it would review the economic plans worked out by the Interdepartmental Group to be reorganized—and direct negotiations on economic problems when undertaken. The membership of the reconstituted committee would, as before, be the high-ranking officers of the Department, though some of them might come to meetings only when matters of special interest to them in connection with their individual duties were under discussion. The Committee would continue under Mr. Welles' chairmanship, with a new vice chairman to replace Mr. Wilson who had retired.

This proposal and various substitute plans were discussed over the next several weeks by Mr. Welles with Myron C. Taylor, who had Valready made a general proposal to the President for a strong study group, and with others. Lack of certainty regarding organizational plans for preparation of postwar policy therefore joined with the burden of current problems in delaying during the spring of 1941 any decision upon a definite course of action with respect to postwar problems. Furthermore, since responsibility for the swiftly expanding international economic aspects of the defense program was scattered among new defense agencies and "old-line" Departments, confusion was beginning to arise over responsibility for formulating postwar policy in regard to various fundamental problems in the economic field. Accordingly, postwar problems were considered in the Department in the spring of 1941 only by the small research staff and by superior officers individually in connection with long-range aspects of current problems. Nevertheless, the preparation, while handicapped and barely in motion, was yet under way, with the question of how better to proceed under consideration on the periphery of the main preoccupations of the period. Secretary Hull, in an address on April 24 in which he stated that the war might last a long time, could report that the Department was at work on "the task of creating ultimate conditions of peace with justice."7

That task, which was the subject of growing interest on the part of the public and in many Departments and agencies in Washington, was again stressed by Secretary Hull in a radio address on May 18, 1941:

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it is none too early to lay down at least some of the principles by which policies must be guided at the conclusion of the For text of proposal memorandum, see appendix 7. Department of State Bulletin, IV, 494.

war, to press for a broad program of world economic reconstruction and to consider tentative plans for the application of those policies. "The main principles, as proven by experience, are few and simple:

1. Extreme nationalism must not again be permitted to express
itself in excessive trade restrictions.

2. Non-discrimination in international commercial relations must
be the rule, so that international trade may grow and prosper.
3. Raw-material supplies must be available to all nations without
discrimination.

4. International agreements regulating the supply of commod-
ities must be so handled as to protect fully the interests of the
consuming countries and their people.

5. The institutions and arrangements of international finance must be so set up that they lend aid to the essential enterprises and the continuous development of all countries, and permit the payment through processes of trade consonant with the welfare of all countries.

"Measures taken to give effect to these principles must be freely open to every nation which desires a peaceful life in a world at peace and is willing to cooperate in maintaining that peace.

"In the final reckoning, the problem becomes one of establishing the foundations of an international order in which independent nations cooperate freely with each other for their mutual gainof a world order, not new but renewed, which liberates rather than enslaves.

"We shall not be able to do this until we have a world free from imminent military danger and clear of malign political intrigue. We can expect no healthy development until the menace of conquest has been brought to an end." 8

Interest in postwar problems was also increasing in Congress, where a Senate Resolution was introduced by Senator Elbert D. Thomas of Utah to authorize the Committee on Foreign Relations to make a full study of all matters pertaining to the establishment of a lasting peace throughout the world. In this connection, Secretary Hull informed the Chairman of the Committee, Senator Walter F. George of Georgia, on June 7, of the Department's activities in preparation for the future peace. The Secretary wrote:

"Since the outbreak of hostilities in Europe, the Department of State has been, as a matter of course, assembling and analyzing pertinent information bearing on post-war problems of international relations. This includes careful watching of current developments in various parts of the world in their possible bearing on post-war developments; an examination of past experience for whatever light it may throw on the future; and a study of pro

Ibid., IV, 575–76.

⚫S. Res. 110, 77th Cong., 1st sess., Cong. Rec., May 5, 1941, vol. 87, p. 3551.

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