Office of the Historian

763.72119/2994

The Assistant Secretary of the Treasury ( Rathbone ) to the Acting Secretary of State

Washington , December 12, 1918.

Dear Mr. Polk: I have the honor to enclose to you herewith the copy of a letter which I have this day received from Mr. de Billy, Deputy French High Commissioner, advising of the receipt of the Bank of France of 91,000 kilograms of gold representing all or part of the gold payments made by Russia to the German Government under the terms of the Brest-Litovsk Treaty.24

I am [etc.]

Arthur Rathbone
[Enclosure]

The Deputy French High Commissioner to the United States ( de Billy ) to the Assistant Secretary of the Treasury ( Rathbone )

Washington , December 11, 1918.

My Dear Mr. Rathbone: I beg to inform you that I received today a telegram from the French Minister of Finances advising me that in accordance with the conditions imposed by the International [Page 51] Armistice Commission at Spa, the German representatives have delivered to the Bank of France, the Russian gold in their possession.

They declared to the representatives of the French Government that they had received only the first two installments of the gold payments to be made by Russia under the terms of the Brest-Litovsk Treaty, in all 91,000 kilograms of gold. These declarations were accepted with full reserve.

These 91,000 kilograms of gold arrived yesterday morning in Paris and will be held by the Bank of France as a deposit for the common account of the Allies. They will not figure in the Bank’s statement.

I am [etc.]

de Billy
  1. For text of treaty, see Foreign Relations, 1918, Russia, vol. i, p. 442.↩