862.51/2057: Telegram
The Ambassador in Germany (Schurman) to the Secretary of State
[Received October 16—7 p.m.]
173. From Gilbert59 for your information. I have been receiving repeated inquiries within the past few days from representatives of American banking houses as to the attitude of the Transfer Committee toward service of the German loans floated in the United States. Practically all these inquiries have duplicated inquiries on the same point which were made nearly a year ago and one banker has said that occasion for renewed inquiry was that the Department of State had advised his New York office to make such inquiries of the agent general for reparation payments. He said further that State Department has included advice to this effect in its formal [Page 177] letters to bankers indicating Department’s attitude toward several recent German loans. If the Department is in fact giving this advice to bankers I should very much appreciate sample testimonial by cable. Our consistent answer to all such inquiries from the beginning of operations under the experts’ plan60 has been that neither agent general nor the Transfer Committee can give any assurances whatever with respect to the service of loans which is [are] floated abroad by German states or municipalities or industrial or other undertakings, and bankers and others interested have been referred to the experts’ plan and the London Agreement61 for a statement of the powers and responsibilities of the agent general and the Transfer Committee in respect to the foreign exchange and the transfer of reparation payments. There has been no change in the situation so far as the Transfer Committee is concerned and its attitude in the matter remains unchanged.