Page:United States Statutes at Large Volume 54 Part 2.djvu/1259

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INTERNATIONAL AGREEMENTS OTHER THAN TREATIES [54 STAT. supplies in the United States the Government of the United King- dom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland is 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 reserve for the United States Government against a possible emergency 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 determined 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 supplies in such territory, or in the contingency of an interruption of wool textile production in the United Kingdom for the manufacture of textiles in the United States to meet United Kingdom emer- gency textile requirements, provided that (a) replacements for wool so withdrawn are on the way to the United States and (b) at no time the total of the reserve in the United States is tem- porarily depleted by more than twenty per cent by such with- drawals. (3) At any time after the signing of a General Armistice be- tween the United Kingdom and Germany, the Government of the United Kingdom shall be at liberty to dispose of the wool remaining in the reserve, but the United States Government and the Government of the United Kingdom shall consult together with a view to ensuring that the disposal of any such wool in the United States shall be effected under conditions which will avoid a dislocation of normal wool marketing there. (4) The wool for the reserve shall be made available by the Government of the United Kingdom f.o .b . at Australian ports, and the United States Government (directly or through an agency acting on its behalf) shall thereafter accept responsibility for the safe custody of the wool and shall pay transport, handling, storage, insurance including war risk, and other charges in con- nection with the establishment and maintenance of the wool reserve. Payments shall be made between the United States Government and the Government of the United Kingdom on sale of wool from the reserve to offset any savings secured by the Government of the United Kingdom owing to the wool hav- ing been transported to and stored in the United States by the