462.00R296/4906
The Yugoslav Minister (Pitamic) to the Acting Secretary of State
Note Verbale
The Yugoslav Minister presents his compliments to the Acting Secretary of State and, by the order of his Government, begs to inform him that the Yugoslav Government regrets not to be able to sign, on the 11th of this month, the Report of the Committee of Experts31 for the application of President Hoover’s plan. The Yugoslav Government, not having been invited to participate in the work of the Committee, has made known its views to the Governments interested and has likewise explained in detail the consequences, upon the Yugoslav finances, of the application of President Hoover’s plan. [Page 234] These consequences are of such a character that the simple acceptance of the plan would entirely upset the equilibrium of the Budget and bring into question the stability of the currency which has just been brought about at the cost of great effort.
The Yugoslav Government holds that such consequences are certainly not in the desire of the initiator of the plan. This is also placed on record in the Report of the Committee of Experts which acknowledged the weight of our arguments and which expressed the desire that the Central Banks should come, together with the International Bank, to aid in the maintenance of our financial stability.
The Yugoslav Government believes that its viewpoint has also been accepted in the Franco-American Agreement, which emphasized the necessity of furnishing credits to Yugoslavia during the period of the suspension of payments.
Accordingly the Yugoslav Government could not bind itself by this plan until it should be definitely assured that the afore-mentioned consequences have been averted.
- For text of this report, see Great Britain, Cmd. 3947, Misc. No. 19 (1931).↩