File No. 861.48/402
The Ambassador in Great Britain ( Page) to the Secretary of State
[Received November 5, 2.45 a.m..]
7600. Your 5459, September 21, 4 [3] p.m.,1 transmission relief funds to Russian Poland. Foreign Office informs me following method adopted by Thomas Cook & Son for effecting payments to British or Allied nationals in enemy-occupied districts of Russian Poland: [Page 519]
The London office advises the office in Amsterdam of the payments to be made. The office in Amsterdam thereupon buys in Holland a check on a Hamburg bank and sends the check to the Hamburg office, which it is understood is open for business on certain days in every week by the instructions and under the control of officials appointed by the German Government. The remittances to the occupied parts of Russia are made by the Hamburg office which obtains receipts from the persons to whom the money is sent. The London office has no information either as to the manner in which the Hamburg office remits the money or obtains receipts, but it has evidence which shows that remittances are made through the German post office by money order. The acknowledgments are sent by the Hamburg office through the Amsterdam office to London. The London office has from time to time been informed occasionally after a lapse of as many as nine months that remittances have been returned by the German post office as undeliverable. It does not know of any case in which any money has actually been lost.
It is proposed to hold a meeting on November 6 at the Foreign Office of representatives of various Departments of the British Government interested in question of transmission of relief to enemy and enemy-occupied territory and this Embassy will be represented on the invitation of the Foreign Office.