862.51/2942
Memorandum by the Secretary of State
When the French Ambassador called today he brought up the question of the visit to me of Dr. Schacht,4 and asked whether Dr. Schacht had brought any message from the German Government, saying that he was troubled by the press reports and the speeches which Dr. Schacht had made in regard to moratoriums, et cetera.
I told him of Dr. Schacht’s visit to me in the Department and how I had come to then ask him to lunch at my house on Sunday. I told him that on neither of these occasions had any propositions been brought forward by Dr. Schacht regarding the political or business situation in Germany, nor had such situation been discussed—that both meetings were purely personal and social and we discussed Dr. Schacht’s program for his visit to this country, where he was going and how he was taking his son to Chicago and placing him in a bank there, and how he intended to deliver a few lectures.
The Ambassador was evidently very anxious, on behalf of his Government, to know whether Germany had made any proposal to this Government relating to reduction of reparations or a moratorium, and I told him she had not.
I told him that quite unofficially and through American banking channels I knew that since the German election many millions in credits have been taken away from Germany, and that, in the light of these facts, my own judgment was that the situation in Germany was getting to be very ticklish, but that no proposition on the subject had been made by the German Government to this Government.
He said he knew of this and that Germany had herself to thank for having such an election. I then said that I did not think that was the way to look at it, that it was easy to find in any nation and in any election facts and elements which were disturbing or wrong but that the question always was whether those facts and those actions were representative of the nation as a whole, and that I was trying to maintain that attitude towards Germany in this case. I was troubled by the election but I was not going to judge Germany until I saw how she acted after the election. I said that we had in this country communistic elements and violent elements which were as bad as those in any country, but that they did not represent the general sentiment of this country as he himself knew. The same thing could be true of any other country and that the same thing could be true in Germany and we should give Germany the benefit of the doubt and not judge her by certain elements who probably did not represent the country as a whole.
[Page 90]In closing he said he wished to be sure that he understood me—that we had not been approached by the German Government on the subject of a moratorium or reparations, and I said again we had not.
- Hjalmar Schacht, President of the Reichsbank from 1924 to March 1930.↩