840.515 Gold Bloc/26a: Telegram
The Secretary of State to the Consul at Geneva ( Gilbert )
122. Please tell Stoppani that reading of “Memorandum concerning the inquiry into compensation and clearing agreements”21 drawn up by the Secretariat for the preliminary meeting of the Joint Committee has created some misgiving here as to whether the subject will receive sufficiently rounded consideration in all its aspects. It is felt in particular that the sentence on page 4 which reads “As regards the inquiry itself, it is difficult to see how countries which have not felt impelled to conclude clearing agreements on their own behalf, could be of great assistance to the Joint Committee in throwing light upon the ‘causes, scope, methods and results’ of such agreements,” creates misgiving as to whether there is full understanding of the position of these countries. As pointed out in some detail in Feis’s letter to Smets of November 8 such agreements in their very nature affect the interests of outside countries and each in turn creates problems for and leads to action by outside countries. Therefore it is our opinion that a study of these indirect results, and of the problems created for third countries, deserves the most careful consideration simultaneously with all other aspects of the question and no less exhaustively.