800.51W89 Great Britain/520
The Secretary of State to the British Ambassador (Lindsay)
Excellency: In a note dated June 15, 1933,40 the British Foreign Office informed the American Embassy at London that His Majesty’s Government in the United Kingdom, in pursuance of the notes exchanged the previous day with the Acting Secretary of State, was that day making to the United States Treasury a payment of $10,000,000 which was to be effected by the delivery of 20,000,000 fine ounces of silver and that 20,000,000 fine ounces of silver had accordingly been placed to the account of the United States Government at the government’s mint in Bombay, His Majesty’s Government remaining responsible for the safe delivery of this silver until it should reach the United States authorities at San Francisco.
[Page 847]I am requested by the Under Secretary of the Treasury to advise your Government that the silver bullion was received at the United States Mint at San Francisco in the early part of August and since that time has been in the process of weighing and assaying. The mint has now completed the weighing and assaying and has determined that the amount deposited by the British Government was 20,001,036.84 fine ounces of silver. The mint advises that there was an error on British mint invoices in carrying forward the amount of weight from one sheet to the next, of 1,000 ounces. The value of the silver at 50 cents an ounce as fixed by the President under the provisions of Section 45 of the Act approved May 12, 1933,41 is $10,000,518.42.
I am further to advise you that the value of this silver at 50 cents an ounce has been credited as a payment on account of the interest due June 15, 1933, from the British Government on its indebtedness to the United States.
Accept [etc.]