800.51 W 89Yugoslavia/66

The Minister in the Kingdom of the Serbs, Croats and Slovenes ( Dodge ) to the Secretary of State

No. 2680

Sir: Referring to the last paragraph of my Despatch No. 2627 of March 26th,90 last in which I stated that as a result of my continuing to press Dr. Stojadinovitch, the Minister of Finance, for the assurances regarding the Yugoslav debt to the Government of the United States, requested by my Note of May 15th, 1924, which embodied your telegram No. 14 of May 13, 6 p.m., 1924, I have the honor to inform you that I finally received a Note from the Foreign Office containing these assurances on the 16th instant. I enclose a copy and translation of this Note herewith.

The second sentence of the third paragraph of this Note read when I received it: “Il ne placera, par des arrangements spéciaux les Etats-Unis d’Amérique ni dans une situation moins favorable …” (“It will not by special arrangements place the United States of America in a less favorable situation …”). I availed of a call upon Dr. Stojadinovitch to invite his attention to this sentence and to inquire as to its exact meaning. Dr. Stojadinovitch informed me that the “special arrangements” referred to were intended to mean special arrangements for refunding debts such for example as the arrangement now being negotiated with the British Government for the refunding of its post-war relief and reconstruction advances (Despatch No. 2627 of March 26th last) but that if I preferred some modification of this phrase, he was prepared to make it. I thereupon suggested that some such phrase as “Il ne placera d’aucune maniére” (“It will not in any manner place”) would appear to include all possible acts on the part of the Yugoslav Government and seem to be more satisfactory. Dr. Stojadinovitch agreed to this modification and accordingly struck out the words “par des arrangements spéciaux” and interlined the words “d’aucune maniére”. The copies and translations enclosed are similarly obliterated and interlined so as to correspond with the original Note.

I expressed my regret that the Note was not more directly responsive in its form to the Department’s telegram embodied in my Note. Dr. Stojadinovitch replied that he regretted that he had not had it written using the same terms but that I might be assured that its meaning was intended to be exactly responsive to my Note. I then said that I would communicate it to my Government.

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The paragraphs in the Note enclosed regarding the financial operations and foreign loans of the Yugoslav Government will be observed and are evidently intended as a further reply to the phrase in the Department’s telegram requesting confirmation to the effect that “no action will be taken by the Government of the Kingdom of the Serbs, Croats and Slovenes prior to the refunding or discharge of the latter’s indebtedness to the United States with respect to any other indebtedness heretofore or hereafter contracted which would result in placing the United States in a less favorable position as a creditor than that which it occupies at the present time.” In connection with such loans, I may refer to the Department’s Instruction No. 507 of July 22nd, 1924, in reply to my Despatch No. 2348 of May 27th, 1924,91 requesting a statement setting forth the Department’s point of view regarding the relations between the assurances asked by the World War Debt Commission and further financial obligations which the Yugoslav Government might desire to incur.

I have [etc.]

H. Percival Dodge
[Enclosure—Translation92]

The Yugoslav Minister for Foreign Affairs ( Nintchitch ) to the American Minister ( Dodge )

Mr. Minister: By your letter No. 755 dated May 5th last you were good enough to ask me to confirm the assurances made by the delegates of the Royal Government especially appointed to discuss its debt to the United States of America before the Committee on Foreign Debts of the World War.

In confirmation of the assurances of the Delegates of the Royal Government I have the honour to make the following statement to you:

The Royal Government considers its debt to the United States of America as a financial obligation which has to be fully respected and it has the intention and the desire to pay it when the economic and financial recovery of the country will permit of it. It will not in any manner place the United States of America either in a less favorable position than another creditor of the Kingdom for the period from 1914 to 1920 or in a less favourable position than their present position as creditor.

By its financial operations and by its foreign loans since the conclusion of peace up to the present the Government of the Kingdom [Page 188] of the Serbs, Croats and Slovenes has had as its objective the economic recovery of its country devastated by war, the improvement of its financial position and the balancing of its budget.

The Royal Government hopes that the results obtained and to be obtained in this manner in the administration of public finances will permit of the economic recovery of the country necessary for its normal life and for the liquidation of the war debts.

The Government of the Kingdom of the Serbs, Croats and Slovenes ventures to express its profound conviction that the Government of the United States of America will recognize the justness of the principle in virtue of which the Kingdom of the Serbs, Croats and Slovenes deserves to obtain facilities for the liquidation of its war debts as well as those which may be accorded to other allied and associated states.

Accept [etc.]

M. Nintchitch

  1. Not printed.
  2. Neither printed.
  3. Revised translation supplied by the Yugoslav Government; filed separately under file No. 026 Foreign Relations/1449.