Office of the Historian

550.S1 Washington/553: Telegram

The Secretary of State to the Chargé in Germany (Gordon)
Washington, May 20, 1933—2 p.m.

55. Answering your 85 May 20 noon31 conversations with Dr. Schacht here chiefly protesting against public announcement from Berlin at the time that all service on external debt of 5 billions dollars would immediately cease so far as transfers were involved. We insisted that while our Government was not in any sense involved in this private external indebtedness situation it would be absolutely indefensible if the creditors were not first notified of this imminent development and first given a chance to visit Germany and personally inspect and deal with all phases.

In many ways Schacht and the Ambassador were impressed with what is universally thought in this country about reports of oppression and various forms of mistreatment of minorities there. This of course was done in an unofficial and purely individual way and while emphatic it was made incidental to the conversations.

Dr. Schacht represented strongly that his Government was in harmony with the views and purposes of our Government as they relate to the agenda of the World Economic Conference.

There was very little new in the conversations about disarmament in addition to what the President said in his world statement32 and what Norman Davis will say on Monday.33 They were frankly informed that our Government was standing in principle on Parts 2 to 5 of the MacDonald proposal34 and that our Government is opposed to rearmament by Germany including sample types.

Hull
  1. Not printed.↩
  2. Message from President Roosevelt to various Chiefs of State, May 16, p. 143.↩
  3. See telegram No. 644, May 19, 11 p.m., from the Chairman of the American delegation, p. 154.↩
  4. See telegram No. 569, March 17, noon, from the Acting Chairman of the American delegation, p. 43.↩