File No. 763.72112/5964
The Acting Secretary of State to the Secretary of the Treasury ( McAdoo)
Sir: The British Embassy is pressing me for an answer to the various notes and memoranda submitted to this Department and forwarded to you or to the War Trade Board for the information of your representative, Mr. Straus, relating to the extension of the financial blockade and the securing of bankers’ guarantees.
The position of the United States Government with respect to the proposal suggested, inasmuch as questions of financial policy are presented, must be decided by you. For my part I see no objection to putting into effect the suggestion as to bankers’ guarantees contained in the telegram to you dated December 19, 1917, from Mr Crosby (his No. 21).1
In my letter to you of August 28, 1917,2 I suggested a modification of section V of the memorandum of the British Embassy dated August 18, 1917. The same suggestion applies to section VII of the memorandum forwarded with the note of the British Embassy dated October 5, 1917,3 a copy of which note was sent to the War Trade Board for the information of your representative on that board. This modification simply conforms the language of the memorandum to our definition of “enemy.”
I shall be glad to receive from you an expression of your views so that I may communicate the same to the British Embassy at the earliest possible moment.
I have [etc.]