462.00 R 29/2170½

Memorandum by the Secretary of State of a Conversation with the French Ambassador (Jusserand), November 7, 1922

The Ambassador called to say that he had been informed by the President that this Government would send a representative to the economic conference24 and he wished to take up the matter with the Secretary. The Secretary said that the Ambassador spoke rather more definitely about the conference than he had understood the situation warranted. So far as the Secretary knew the Conference had not yet been determined upon and this Government had not yet received an invitation. The Secretary asked whether the plans for the Conference had ripened. The Ambassador said that he thought the views of his Government were clear in the matter. The Secretary asked whether he was prepared to talk with respect to the views of the other Governments. The Ambassador said that he was not and admitted that the plans were still inchoate.

The Secretary said that this Government desired to be as helpful as possible in connection with the economic situation abroad; but that he was particularly desirous to avoid arousing false hopes or the putting of this Government in a position where it would seem to promise assistance that could not be given or a readiness to discuss matters which it was not free to discuss. The Secretary said that so far as the debts to the United States were concerned, the matter was not within Executive control; that it was a matter for Congress; that Congress had acted in the return of the Debt Commission and had strictly limited its authority; that the Executive could not empower any delegate to discuss matters that came within the purview [Page 179] of this Congressional action. The Secretary said that there could be no modification of the present restrictions except by Congress, and that any attempt to discuss the matter of the debts in a foreign conference would be the reverse of helpfulness so far as Congressional sentiment was concerned.

The Ambassador said that he understood this clearly and that before any action was taken by the United States it would be necessary, of course, for the agenda of the Conference to be decided upon and to be arranged so as to be agreeable to the United States. The Secretary said he would await further information upon this point.

The Secretary then said that he was deeply interested in the solution of the economic problems abroad and desired to state to the Ambassador frankly and in a wholly informal and unofficial way what he thought might be a helpful course of action. He said that he did not think that the statesmen of the countries concerned could solve the matter by meeting together directly or through delegates responsible to foreign offices. He said that the governments were committed; they had the political situation in their countries to consider and hence their freedom of action was restricted and it was very difficult to have a financial plan developed which would fit the actual economic conditions. The Secretary said he hoped that in this emergency there might be found a way of enlisting authoritative financial opinion through a meeting of important financial men in the various countries with the sympathy and approval of the governments but acting freely in the sense that they were to formulate without restriction by instructions from foreign offices their views as to what should be done. In this way a financial plan could be formulated which the governments could accept because a plan thus formed would carry the highest weight and they could bow to it as inevitable. Such an arrangement would have the requisite financial backing in the various countries. The Secretary said that he had taken this up with Mr. Herrick and he understood that Mr. Herrick had presented the matter informally to M. Poincaré.

The Secretary also said that the fundamental point was the reparation problem; that France had an unsettled credit item for reparations; that nobody knew what the contents of this item would be; that the financial situation of France and its ability to meet its known obligations could not be determined until this item was fixed. This lay at the foundation of the whole economic question abroad, and the Secretary hoped that this reparation matter could be settled if it were arranged on its merits by business men of the highest authority because of their financial ability and intellectual integrity.

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The Ambassador said that he agreed with what the Secretary had said and that he would take the matter up at once to see whether anything could be done along the lines suggested.

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  1. The proposed conference at Brussels.