862.51/4064a: Telegram
The Secretary of State to the Ambassador in Germany (Dodd)
74. Please take the earliest occasion to see Von Neurath or a ranking official in the Foreign Office and state orally that you have been instructed by your Government to protest energetically and formally against the recent summary independent action of Germany in respect to her external debts, which seriously affects our Government and its nationals. The American Government takes occasion to express its strongest regret that new losses are thereby imposed on American citizens, and that debtor–creditor relationships have been further impaired.
I purpose to inform the press on Monday of the general tenor of the foregoing.
In regard to the question of discrimination against American investors that has been brought to the front by the developments mentioned in your 112, of June 16, please state to the German Government that this Government would view with disapproval any and all developments in this situation under which its investors receive poorer treatment than investors of other countries, and would be called upon to protest any such discrimination. The spectacle of having not only to accept losses but to perceive payments to investors of other nationalities at their expense would arouse immediate resentment among the numerous American investors.
[Page 365]As regards further statements of Foreign Office transmitted in your 112, if the German Government wishes to put forward proposals for an agreed on reduction of interest on its external indebtedness, this Government is convinced that the Council of Foreign Bondholders, which has been representing the American holders of German securities, would give consideration to such proposals.