462.00R296A1/227: Telegram
The Consul at Basel (Cochran) to the Secretary of State
[Received July 12—1:52 p.m.]
For Castle. The following is the text of the Gentlemen’s Agreement of July 8:25 [Page 688]
“The Lausanne agreement26 will not come into final effect until after ratification as provided for in the agreement. So far as the creditor governments, on whose behalf this procès-verbale is initialed,27 are concerned, ratification will not be effected until a satisfactory settlement has been reached between them and their own creditors. It will be open to them to explain the position to their respective parliaments, but no specific reference to it will appear in the text of the agreement with Germany. Subsequently if a satisfactory settlement about their own debts is reached the aforesaid creditor governments will ratify and the agreement with Germany will come into full effect. But if no such settlement can be obtained, the agreement with Germany will not be ratified; a new situation will have arisen and the governments interested will have to consult together as to what should be done. In that event, the legal position, as between all the governments, would revert to that which existed before the Hoover Moratorium.
The German Government will be notified of this arrangement.”
- In the official British White Paper, this document is dated July 2 (Great Britain, Cmd. 4129, Misc. No. 8 (1932): Further Documents relating to the Settlement reached at the Lausanne Conference, p. 3).↩
- Great Britain, Cmd. 4126, Misc. No. 7 (1932): Final Act of the Lausanne Conference, Lausanne, July 9, 1932. ↩
- Initialed by Jules Renkin on behalf of Belgium; Edouard Herriot on behalf of France; Neville Chamberlain on behalf of Great Britain; and Antonio Mosconi on behalf of Italy.↩