550.S1 Monetary Commission/56
The Chief of the Treaty Division (Barnes) to the Acting Secretary of State
Dear Mr. Phillips: Mr. Moore10 and I (not the Solicitor11 of the Department) had a conference with Senator Pittman at the latter’s [Page 773] office on December 14, 1933, at which we discussed informally the treaty program with reference both to treaties already sent to the Senate and not yet acted upon and the treaties which the Department probably would recommend to the President for transmission during the present session of Congress.
We readily agreed with Senator Pittman that it was not necessary to deal with the silver agreement as a treaty, when he informed us that it was not the intention of the negotiators who signed it on behalf of the different countries that it should be regarded as a treaty, but that it might be put into operation by legislative or administrative action in each country as was intended by the negotiators. Inasmuch as none of the other governments intend to regard the agreement as a treaty, it would only create confusion for the United States to deal with it as a treaty.
It was not our intention to raise the question in your letter of December 29, last,12 to the President whether the President had authority to take the action necessary to fulfill the terms of the agreement by proclamation but only the question that as there is no declaration in the proclamation13 that it is a ratification of the London agreement nor is there any instruction from the President to the Secretary of State to that effect, there is not a formal record that the proclamation is intended as such a ratification.
While the officers of the Department, including Mr. Moore, who have considered the agreement and the proclamation are satisfied that the proclamation directs the Secretary of the Treasury to take action which will result in the fulfillment of the silver agreement on the part of the United States, they feel that authority to regard the proclamation as operating as a ratification of the agreement should come directly from the President to the Department of State. In the press statement regarding the proclamation released by the White House on December 21, 6 p.m., it is said that the President stated, “Under the clear authority granted to me by the last session of the Congress, I have today, by proclamation, proceeded to ratify the London agreement with regard to silver.…”14 It was thought that the President might make a similar statement in a letter to the Acting Secretary of State or might merely endorse “OK” with his initials on your letter of December 29, 1933, to him and return it to the Department. If he would now make such an endorsement near the beginning of the second paragraph of page 2 of Senator Pittman’s letter to him15 and return this letter to the Department, the Department would feel that it had [Page 774] authority to regard the proclamation as a ratification of the silver agreement and would have no difficulty in preparing the notices which it is the duty of this Government as the depositary of the agreements to give to the other parties.
It is suggested that you might make the suggestion of an endorsement on Senator Pittman’s letter informally to the President at the next opportunity and that it is not necessary to add to the file of correspondence.
- Robert Walton Moore, Assistant Secretary of State.↩
- Green Haywood Hackworth, Legal Adviser.↩
- Not printed.↩
- Proclamation of December 21, 1933; 48 Stat. 1723.↩
- For complete text of the White House press release, see Department of State, Press Releases, December 30, 1933, p. 365.↩
- January 9, 1934; not printed.↩