File No. 851.51/47
The Ambassador in France ( Sharp) to the Secretary of State
[Received April 12, 12.30 p.m.]
1993. Your 2126, April 5. Upon receipt of your telegram making known the request of the Secretary of the Treasury that I ascertain [Page 521] from the Minister of Finance the amount of loan or credit in the United States that would be most helpful to the French Government to cover a period of the next six months, I immediately arranged for an appointment with Premier Ribot, until recently as you know the Minister of Finance in the French Cabinet almost since the beginning of the war. Although I expressed a desire to have a joint meeting with him and Mr. Thierry, the present Minister of Finance, yet, owing to the latter’s absence from the city for a number of days, and the desire for prompt reply, I took up the matter with Premier Ribot alone. He expressed his very great appreciation of this tender of help on the part of our Government and promised to give me the information which the Secretary of the Treasury requested at the earliest possible moment. In accordance with instructions I made it clear to the Premier that though information was desired as to the probable extent that the credit to be given would be employed in the purchase of supplies in the United States, it must not be at all implied that the granting of such a loan would be in any way conditioned upon such expenditures in our country but was only desired as it would have a bearing upon the method of financing it. Yesterday as per my No. 19921 answer was received from Foreign Office. The following is a verbatim copy of the statement both in text and classification, the English translation herein quoted being made by Foreign Office:
The payments in foreign countries for requirements of the French Government are estimated monthly at a total sum of $218,000,000. They can be filed into two categories:
| 1. Purchases in the United States: | |||
| (a) Payments in New York City | $110,000,000 | ||
| (b) Payments actually made in London in pounds but finally settled in dollars | 23,000,000 | ||
| Total | $133,000,000 | ||
| 2. Purchases outside the United States: | |||
| (a) Payments in England | 75,000,000 | ||
| (b) Payments in various countries (Spain, Italy, Switzerland, Argentine) other than England | 10,000,000 | ||
| Total | 85,000,000 | ||
| Grand total of monthly payments to be made by France in the United States and in other foreign countries | 218,000,000 | ||
Payments in foreign countries (monetary valuations in millions of dollars): [Page 522]
| 1. Payments in New York: | |||
| War [material] and armaments | $72,300,000 | ||
| Requirements of the Army (provisions) | 3,000,000 | ||
| Civilian requirements (provisions) | 12,000,000 | ||
| Marine | 500,000 | ||
| Railway material | 6,600,000 | ||
| Interest of [on] loans | 5,600,000 | ||
| Mineral oils | 1,600,000 | ||
| Relief committee | 9,000,000 | ||
| Total | $110,600,000 | ||
| 2. Payments actually made in London in pounds out finally settled in dollars: | |||
| Frozen meats | 10,800,000 | ||
| Oats | 5,000,000 | ||
| Nitrates | 3,300,000 | ||
| Cotton | 600,000 | ||
| Canadian timber wood | 1,000,000 | ||
| Wools | 2,200,000 | ||
| Total | 22,900,000 | ||
| 3. Payments in various countries (Spain, Italy, Switzerland, Argentine) other than England | 10,000,000 | ||
| 4. Payments in England other than under 2: | |||
| (a) War ammunitions | 25,000,000 | ||
| (b) Coal, freights, cast-iron and sheet-iron, etc | 50,000,000 | ||
| Total | 75,000,000 | ||
| Grand total | 218,500,000 | ||
The Premier in our conversation stated to me that personally he hoped no resolution would be introduced or debated on the floor of Congress looking to making a gift on the part of our Government to France however much his countrymen might appreciate the sentiment of good will which would prompt it. In view of the action of France in the agreements entered into by Franklin representing our country in the time of our own distress in the years 1782 and 1783 it would however, if I may be permitted to make this suggestion, seem a most generous and gracious thing to do, if such an arrangement is feasible, in making a loan to France at this time to provide that no interest shall accrue or be payable on such loan for the duration of the war and for a limited number of years hereafter.
- Not printed.↩