Page:United States Statutes at Large Volume 54 Part 2.djvu/1184

 54 STAT.] GREAT BRITAIN-NAVAL AND AIR BASES-SEPT. 2, 1940 Arrangement between the United States of America and Great Britain September 2, 1940 respecting naval and air bases. Effected by exchange of notes signed [E. A. S .No. I81] September 2, 1940. The British Ambassador (Lothian) to the Secretary of State (Hull) BRrTISH EMBASSY, WASHINGOTON, D. C., September 2nd, 1940 SIm, I have the honour under instructions from His Majesty's Princi- pal Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs to inform you that in view of the friendly and sympathetic interest of His Majesty's Government in the United Kingdom in the national security of the United States and their desire to strengthen the ability of the United States to cooperate effectively with the other nations of the Americas in the defence of the Western Hemisphere, His Majesty's Government will secure the grant to the Government of the United States, freely and without consideration, of the lease for immediate establishment and use of naval and air bases and facilities for entrance thereto and the operation and protection thereof, on the Avalon Peninsula and on the southern coast of Newfoundland, and on the east coast and on the Great Bay of Bermuda. Furthermore, in view of the above and in view of the desire of the United States to acquire additional air and naval bases in the Carib- bean and in British Guiana, and without endeavouring to place a monetary or commercial value upon the many tangible and intangible rights and properties involved, His Majesty's Government will make available to the United States for immediate establishment and use naval and air bases and facilities for entrance thereto and the opera- tion and protection thereof, on the eastern side of the Bahamas, the southern coast of Jamaica, the western coast of St. Lucia, the west coast of Trinidad in the Gulf of Paria, in the island of Antigua and in British Guiana within fifty miles of Georgetown, in exchange for naval and military equipment and material which the United States Government will transfer to His Majesty's Government. All the bases and facilities referred to in the preceding paragraphs will be leased to the United States for a period of ninety-nine years, free from all rent and charges other than such compensation to be mutually agreed on to be paid by the United States in order to com- pensate the owners of private property for loss by expropriation or damage arising out of the establishment of the bases and facilities in question. 2405

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