File No. 893.51/1869
The Secretary of the Treasury ( McAdoo) to the Secretary of State
Dear Mr. Secretary: I have been giving careful consideration to the question of the proposed currency loan to China, and on receipt of your communication of January 15,1 enclosing copy of a telegram from Peking, dated January 14, was about to write you enclosing two memoranda prepared by Mr. Albert Strauss, and comprising accounts of two interviews which he had with Baron Megata on December 27, 1917, and January 8, 1918.1 In my proposed communication, I had intended to point out that there is no authority in law for [Page 141] such a loan by the United States Government itself, and that for the same reasons that are so well pointed out in a communication of the British Foreign Office embodied in Ambassador Page’s telegram of January 1, No. 8116, it was inadvisable, and probably in any event impossible, for any private group in the United States to participate in this business at the present time.
You will observe in his interview with Mr. Strauss, Baron Megata intimated that the matter did not require immediate decision. This same point of view is indicated in the communication from the British Foreign Office above referred to, and taken together with the telegram of January 14, from Peking, seems to lead to the conclusion that no immediate decision in this matter is required.
Appreciating, as I do, your desire that at some time and in some form this business should be consummated, I welcome the opportunity of deferring a decision at the present time, feeling as I do that if a decision is now insisted on it must, from the point of view of the Treasury, be against the proposed transaction.
Cordially yours,