Page:United States Statutes at Large Volume 55 Part 2.djvu/698

 INTERNATIONAL AGREEMENTS OTHER THAN TREATIES [55 STAT. ANNEX I. EXCHANGE OF NOTES REGARDING UNITED STATES DESTROYERS AND NAVAL AND Ama FACILITIES FOR THE UNITED STATES IN BRITISH TRANSATLANTIC TERRITORIES. No. 1. The Marquess of Lothian to Mr. Cordell Hull WASHINGTON, September 2, 1940. SIR, I HAVE the honour, under instructions from His Majesty's Principal 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 co-operate 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 en- trance 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 Caribbean 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 operation 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 of the bases and facilities referred to in the preceding para- graphs 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 compensate the owners of private property for loss by expro- priation or damage arising out of the establishment of the bases and facilities in question. His Majesty's Government in the leases to be agreed upon will grant to the United States for the period of the leases all the rights, power and authority within the bases leased, and within the limits of the territorial waters and air spaces adjacent to or in the vicinity 1572

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