Office of the Historian

868.51 Refugee Loan, 1924/93

The Chargé in Greece (Morris) to the Secretary of State

No. 2146
Athens, May 16, 1932.
[Received June 4.]

Sir: With reference to my telegram No. 39 of May 12, 4 P.M. and the Department’s reply No. 21 dated May 13, 1 P.M., I have the honor to enclose herewith a copy of the formal protest which I handed to the Minister for Foreign Affairs on May 14th. I also enclose a copy of the note handed to the Minister for Foreign Affairs by the British Minister on the same day.8 The note of the British Minister was given immediate publicity in the Athens press. Comments in regard to it I will report in another despatch. Not a word has transpired so far in regard to my protest, which is in keeping with the Government’s action in regard to my previous protests as I have already reported in my despatch No. 2143 of May 10th.8

With regard to the last paragraph of the Department’s telegram No. 21 in which it is stated that the Department does not understand why I did not propose to cover Point C in my representations, I beg to say that at first I was not inclined to do so because of the fact that the point refers to a specific contravention by the Greek Government of a clause of the law regulating the functioning of the International [Page 391] Financial Commission, on which the United States is not represented. After receipt of the Department’s telegram I arrived at the opinion that it would be permissible to include the substance matter of Point C without reference to the specific contravention of the law on the Financial Commission.

If the Greek Government replies to my note and to the British note, I will of course forward copies of these replies to the Department. It is my understanding that the Italian Minister received instructions to join in the protest only in case that his French colleague was instructed to do likewise. Apparently owing to the governmental situation in France at the moment, the French Minister was not instructed to take any action. Therefore neither he nor the Italian Minister joined their British colleague. Both Ministers are inclined to think that they will be instructed before long to make representations.

Respectfully yours,

Leland B. Morris
[Enclosure]

The American Chargé (Morris) to the Greek Minister for Foreign Affairs (Michalakopoulos)

F. O. No. 166
Athens, May 14, 1932.

Your Excellency: I have the honor, under instruction of my Government, and with reference to my verbal representations of May 7th, to inform Your Excellency that I am directed to express the objection of my Government to the proposal of the Hellenic Government to deposit the May 1st maturities on the 1924 7% Loan in a blocked account at the Bank of Greece, as is indicated in the Aide-Mémoire of the Minister for Foreign Affairs addressed to me on April 30, 1932. I am further directed to stress in particular the objection of my Government to the refusal of the Hellenic Government to permit the conversion into American currency of the sums required for the service of the American loans controlled by the International Financial Commission.

In conclusion I have the honor, in accordance with the instructions of my Government, to make a definite demand that the Hellenic Government shall provide the International Financial Commission with the ordinary and customary facilities to purchase American exchange in order to enable it to carry out the service of the American loans which it has undertaken to do.

I avail myself [etc.]

Leland B. Morris
  1. Not printed.↩
  2. Not printed.↩