550.S1 Washington/361

Joint Statement by President Roosevelt and Prime Minister MacDonald29

During the day the Prime Minister and the President have discussed the problems of the debt of the British Government to the United States Government.30 Both have faced the realities and the obligations and both believe that as a result there is laid the basis of a clearer understanding of the situation affecting the two Nations.

It would be wholly misleading to intimate that any plan or any settlement is under way. It is the simple truth that thus far only preliminary explorations of many different routes have been commenced. The point to be emphasized is that with the most friendly spirit progress is being made. After the Prime Minister’s departure these conversations can well continue in London and Washington.

  1. Issued by the White House as a press release, April 25, 1933.
  2. Prime Minister MacDonald was in Washington, April 21–26, for conversations preliminary to the forthcoming Monetary and Economic Conference at London, June 12–July 27. For correspondence pertaining to the Washington conversations, see pp. 489494.