800.51W89 Finland/81
President Roosevelt to the Acting Secretary of State
These Treasury Department figures17 carry out my thought precisely. Do you think that the lesser annual payments on the forty-year plan and the still smaller payments on the fifty-year plan are counterbalanced by the reduction in the total amount to be paid under the five-year plan? In other words, [Page 560]
| 30 years—no interest—equals | $5,854,903. |
| 40 years—1% interest—equals | 7,132,550. |
| 50 years—1½% interest—equals | 8,364,265. |
In your judgment, if you were representing Finland, would you recommend the thirty-year—no interest—plan even though this involves larger annual payments? I want the Finnish Government, of course, to accept the thirty-year plan.
If you think this will attract them and that they will go through with it, I take it the next step will be a tentative agreement, and you can tell them that I would submit such an agreement to the Congress for approval.