800.51W89 Finland/65
Memorandum by the Acting Secretary of State
The Finnish Minister, having received the necessary instructions from his Government, the President received him at the White House on November 13th together with Mr. Acheson and myself. The President opened the conversation by expressing his appreciation of the attitude of the Finnish Government towards its obligations and pointed out that Finland was the only one of foreign debtors to the United States which had carried out to date in full its obligations to this country. He wished, he said, to show his full appreciation of this situation by proposing a settlement which would radically reduce the Finnish debt.
He reminded the Minister that Finland had been paying interest at the rate of 3½ per cent. He would like, he said, to reduce this interest to a purely nominal one and to apply the payments on account of interest to payments on account of capital. If, therefore, payments from Finland since the original debt refunding agreement were applied to capital, the capital debt would be materially reduced. The President asked Mr. Acheson and me to work out the details of such an undertaking. The Minister expressed deep appreciation of the President’s proposal.