868.51/1316
Memorandum by the Secretary of State
The Greek Minister came in to make a plea for a sympathetic attitude on my part in regard to the Greek debt. He said that Greece had arranged for the deposit of this installment of interest in a blocked account and that this literally was at the cost of taking bread from the mouths of the Greek people. I told him that I had been unable to keep informed as to the details of the transaction which, as he knew, had been in the hands of the Secretary of the Treasury and Mr. Bundy, but I pointed out that I had heard, in listening to discussions by others, that the Greek Government had paid the transfer on other loans although she did not pay it on ours, and I could not help wondering about this discrimination. He did not make any definite answer to this but said that on the occasion when all the representatives of his Government had met and decided their action in this matter they had held this to be a war loan. I responded that I understood that 12 millions out of the 30 millions had been advanced much later than the war, and he did not dispute my statement. I asked why Mr. Venizelos was so bitter, and the Minister said it was on account of his having borrowed the three loans from Great Britain, France and the United States, respectively, and having been bitterly disappointed that the full amounts of these loans were not paid. I pointed out again that I understood the United States had paid, at the time of the War when the money was necessary, more than either of the other countries; that France had paid almost nothing, and Great Britain had been far behind us. He said that Great [Page 429] Britain had paid exactly the same amount as we had. I told him I would bear in mind what he said.