The Combined Shipping Adjustment Board or Combined Shipping Board was a joint American-British war agency 1942-45 nominally in charge of commercial shipping. It proved ineffective as much more powerful boards, such as the Combined Munitions Assignments Board, ignored it. The U.S. Army and Navy controlled most shipping and refused to share responsibility with the Board as did the powerful War Shipping Administration. For practical purposes the agency was inactive by spring 1943. [1] [2]
The Combined Munitions Assignments Board was a major government agency for the U.S. and Britain in World War II. With Harry Hopkins, Roosevelt's top advisor in charge, it took control of the allocation of war supplies and Lend lease aid to the Allies, especially Britain and the Soviet Union.
The War Shipping Administration (WSA) was a World War II emergency war agency of the US government, tasked to purchase and operate the civilian shipping tonnage the US needed for fighting the war. Both shipbuilding under the Maritime Commission and ship allocation under the WSA to Army, Navy or civilian needs were closely coordinated though Vice Admiral Emory S. Land who continued as head of the Maritime Commission while also heading the WSA.
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President Franklin D. Roosevelt and Prime Minister Winston Churchill set it up in January 1942 with a 6-point mandate: [3]
Franklin Delano Roosevelt, often referred to by his initials FDR, was an American statesman and political leader who served as the 32nd president of the United States from 1933 until his death in 1945. A Democrat, he won a record four presidential elections and became a central figure in world events during the first half of the 20th century. Roosevelt directed the federal government during most of the Great Depression, implementing his New Deal domestic agenda in response to the worst economic crisis in U.S. history. As a dominant leader of his party, he built the New Deal Coalition, which realigned American politics into the Fifth Party System and defined American liberalism throughout the middle third of the 20th century. His third and fourth terms were dominated by World War II. Roosevelt is widely considered to be one of the most important figures in American history, as well as among the most influential figures of the 20th century. Though he has also been subject to much criticism, he is generally rated by scholars as one of the three greatest U.S. presidents, along with George Washington and Abraham Lincoln.
Sir Winston Leonard Spencer-Churchill, was a British politician, army officer, and writer. He was Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1940 to 1945, when he led Britain to victory in the Second World War, and again from 1951 to 1955. Churchill represented five constituencies during his career as a Member of Parliament (MP). Ideologically an economic liberal and imperialist, for most of his career he was a member of the Conservative Party, which he led from 1940 to 1955, but from 1904 to 1924 was instead a member of the Liberal Party.
- 1. In principle the shipping resources of the two countries will be deemed to be pooled. The fullest information will be interchanged.
- 2. Owing to the military and physical facts of the situation around the British Isles, the entire movement of shipping now under the control of Great Britain will continue to be directed by the Ministry of War Transport.
- 3. Similarly, the appropriate authority in the United States will continue to direct the movements and allocations of U.S. shipping or shipping of other Powers under U.S. control.
- 4. In order to adjust and concert in one harmonious policy the work of the British Ministry of War Transport and the shipping authorities of the U.S. Government, there wilt be established forthwith in Washington a Combined Shipping Adjustment Board consisting of a representative of the United States and a representative of the British Government who will represent and act under the instructions of the British Minister of War Transport.
- 5. A similar Adjustment Board will be set up in London consisting of the Minister of War Transport and a representative of the U.S. Government.
- 6. In both cases the executive power will be exercised solely by the appropriate shipping agency in Washington and by the Minister of War Transport in London.
