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SIR SIDNEY BAILEY said that the object of the Meeting was to have a general survey of the command and defence problems in the leased arcas and surrounding territories, and to decide whether any definite recommenda- tions could be made on the defence items included in the Agenda of the main Conference on the Leases of the U.S. Bases, or whether it was desirable to recommend that certain of the defence items should be removed from the Agenda and that a separate series of Staff Conversations should be held. Continuing, Admiral Bailey gave a brief summary of the British strategical interests in the territories at present and so far as they could be judged in the near future.
?
GENERAL MALONY said that he was only empowered to represent the views of the State Department and not of the General Staff. The views he put forward on the defence problems, therefor were his personal views, and not made in his capacity as a General Staff Officer. General Malony then read to the Committee a note which he had drafted in the form of a letter to Admiral Bailey" putting forward a suggested solution to the defence problem as an alternative to the aide memoire on the subject of command which he had recently been handed.
It was agreed that the present transitional and constructional stage was a period of special importance as it was desirable to ensure that the whole project was initiated on a sound basis agreed by both Governments. It was also liable to be a period of rapid strategical developments.
SIR HUBERT YOUNG, Governor of Trinidad, read out to the Committee some notes which he had prepared, and with which the Governors of Jamaica and the Leeward Islands were in general agreement.
In the cow se of a full discussion it became evident that there was a wide moasure of agrocment on the best method of dealing with the problem of command and defence and the meeting reached the following conclusions -
(a)
(6)
Reference to defence questions should be omitted
from the form of agreement on the leases of the Bases, which is to be published, except for the clause setting out the mutual interest of the two countsics in the defence of the leased areas and the territories in which they are situated, provided that this clause is agreed to by the State Department.
The meeting took note of the proposed appointment
by the United St. tes of a Commander-in-Chief for the whole area other than New foundland and Bermuda to be resident in the West Indies and who would control thice separate sub- commands probably Panama, Porto Rico and Trinidad. (The Committee were reminded that Newfoundland was covered by the Joint Canadian- United States Board. Bermuda was not included in the Caribbean command and provided a separate problem. It was probable that the United States com and of forces in Bermuda would be operated from a headquarters in the Middle Eastern States such as Norfolk, Va.)
*
Q +
Annex I Annex II.
Annex III
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