868.48/879
The Secretary of State to the Greek Charge (Xanthopoulos)
Sir: I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of your note of October 9, 1924, with regard to the loan which, it is indicated, your Government desires to arrange through the League of Nations, for [Page 287] the purpose of making possible the completion of the work required for the settlement of the refugees. You refer to the Legation’s previous communication of July 24, 1923, in which, as contemplated in the Financial Agreement of February 1918, inquiry was made whether the assent of the United States Government would be given to the pledging of further security by Greece for the purpose of raising the loan.
In its reply of August 7, 1923, the Department, as you point out, stated that it was desirous of seeing the exigency as to the work of relief in the Near East properly met and that the question raised in your letter had received and would receive the most careful and sympathetic consideration.
In your communication of October 9, under acknowledgment, you raise again, on behalf of your Government, the question of the consent of this Government to the pledging by Greece of security which will make it possible to raise the contemplated loan. You also enumerate certain suggested modifications of the Protocol of Geneva of September 29, 1923, relative to the loan. These modifications concern the guarantees to be given by the Greek Government and provide that the total amount authorized should be ten million pounds sterling.
I wish to point out in reply that the view of this Government as indicated in the letter of August 7, 1923, referred to above, has not undergone any change. The Department of State is in entire sympathy with the object to which it is contemplated the proceeds of the loan will be put. This Government will therefore place no impediment in the way of the Greek Government’s furnishing security for the loan now contemplated for the purpose of refugee relief.
It should be understood, however, that the consent which this Government hereby gives relates only to the pledging of the security specifically mentioned in the note of October 9 for the purpose of floating the refugee relief loan which you have described. This Government should not therefore be understood to have acquiesced in the view set forth in the paragraph of your note, which reads as follows:
“The Greek Government retains the right to mortgage any surplus from the revenues or the surplus of revenues assigned to this loan, in excess of the amount necessary for its service. The Greek Government pledges itself not to mortgage other revenues, except those assigned to the refugees loan, without the advice of the International Financial Commission.”
It should also be understood that the present consent by the Government of the United States is given with full reservation of all questions with respect to the agreement of February 1918.
Accept [etc.]