800.51W89 Rumania/170
The Rumanian Minister ( Davila ) to the Acting Secretary of State
Sir: In reply to your note of June 9, permit me to emphasize, in the name of my Government, the following part of the note which I had the honour to address to you today:
“… In the course of these conferences I have also shown that although the limits of taxation have been reached and every possible economy made, the expected revenue of Roumania, with a population of almost 19,000,000, is equivalent to only 139,500,000 gold dollars, of which $35,000,000 are due on account of interest on the external public debt service, the statutory amortization of which has had to be practically suspended for the next years, with the consent of the bondholders; that the national income of Roumania in 1932 has fallen to 56.96% of the figures for 1929 and that this situation compelled Roumania to enforce severe foreign exchange restrictions, this being, under the circumstances, the only means of maintaining the legal parity of the national currency. I have, therefore, been compelled to request that the instalment due by Roumania to the United States of America on June 15, 1933, be postponed until after the re-examination of the entire problem and that a date should be set for this purpose. Unfortunately, for reasons which I well understand, this request of my Government could not so far be complied with.”
It results from the above that the Roumanian Government, at present, has not the capacity to pay the instalment due on June 15th to the Government of the United States, as it has likewise, as previously [Page 913] quoted, been compelled to suspend the sinking fund payment on the other governmental debts. Nevertheless, as a token of good-will, the Roumanian Government wishes to pay in advance 3% interest, as calculated in the Roumanian-American debt agreement, on the instalment due June 15th, which it hopes will be considered as a payment on account. This represents 29, 100 dollars. By this the Roumanian Government desires to acknowledge the debt, pending a final settlement, and trusts that a date for the rediscussion of the whole problem will be set at your earliest convenience.
Please accept [etc.]