868.51 Public Works/38
Memorandum by the Chief of the Division of Near Eastern Affairs (Shaw)
I told the Greek Minister that much to my surprise we had learned from our Embassy at Rome that the Italian delegate on the Financial Commission was opposed to putting the Seligman loan under the Commission. I also told the Minister that the indications which we received from our Embassies at London and Paris as well as Rome were that the three Governments were hesitating to give instructions to their delegates on the International Financial Commission in the sense desired by Seligman & Company. I suggested that the Minister might wish to bring this information to the attention of his Government by telegraph. The Minister agreed to do this. I also told the Minister that our position in this whole matter was about as follows: If the three Governments were going to inaugurate a policy of refusing to permit any more loans of any kind whatsoever to be placed under the Financial Commission there was presumably nothing that we could do about it, but if it were a question of taking one attitude towards a loan of American origin now and quite a different attitude towards some other loan of another nationality in the future we should obviously have something very definite to say on the subject. I suggested that this point of view might usefully be brought to the attention of the Greek Government.
The Greek Minister and myself drew up the text of a telegram for him to send to his Government covering the foregoing.