54 STAT.] GREAT BRITAIN-AUSTRALIAN WOOL-DEC. 9, 1940 Agreement between the United States of America and Great Britain respecting a strategic reserve of Australian wool. Effected by exchange of notes signed December 9, 1940; effective December 9, 1940. The British Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs to the American Charged'Affaires ad interim at London December 9, 1940 [E. A. 8. No. 196] No. W 11985/79/49. FOREIGN OFFICE, S. W. 1 . 9th December,1940. SIR, I have the honour to inform you that in order to enable the Govern- ment of the United States of America to establish in the United States a reserve of Australian wool against a possible emergency shortage of wool supplies in the United States, the Government of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland are prepared to enter into an agreement with the Government of the United States in the following terms:- (1) The Government of the United Kingdom shall make avail- able to the United States Government (or an agency acting on its behalf) 250 million pounds of Australian wool as a strategic re- serve for the United States Government against a possible emer- gency shortage of wool supplies in the United States. The wool shall be transported to the United States where it shall be stored in bonded warehouses. The Government of the United Kingdom shall retain title to the wool, but all or any part of the wool may be purchased by the United States Government (or an agency acting on its behalf) for use in the United States or may be sold to the United States domestic trade, if and when it has been deter- mined by the United States Government that an emergency shortage of wool exists in the United States. (2) The Government of the United Kingdom may withdraw wool from the reserve for shipment to the United Kingdom or other British territory in the case of emergency shortage of sup- plies in such territory, or in the contingency of an interruption of wool textile production in the United Kingdom for the manu- facture of textiles in the United States to meet United Kingdom emergency textile requirements, provided that (a) replacements for wool so withdrawn are on the way to the United States and (b) at no time the total of the reserve in the United States is tempo- rarily depleted by more than twenty per cent by such withdrawals. (3) At any time after the signing of a General Armistice between the United Kingdom and Germany, the Government of the United Kingdom shall be at liberty to dispose of the wool Agreement pro- posed by Great Brit- ain. Termnns. 2477
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