800.51W89 Belgium/255

The Secretary of State to the Chairman of the Senate Committee on Finance (Harrison)

My Dear Senator Harrison: The Bill S. 142, “To permit radium to be accepted in payment of war debts due from Belgium, and to provide for the distribution of such radium”, transmitted with your office memorandum of January 7, 1935,2 has been considered with interest.

I do not desire to comment on the purpose of the Bill in so far as concerns the question of the desirability of the United States Government [Page 375] acquiring radium and donating it to hospitals, medical clinics and medical research organizations in the United States.

The method by which the Bill proposes to effect this purpose is by authorizing the President to accept radium not exceeding $10,000,000 in value should it be tendered by or on behalf of the Belgian Government in payment of the national indebtedness of Belgium to the United States arising out of the World War and to credit the value of the radium so accepted to such indebtedness.

Belgium has not made payments due December 15, 1932, June 15 and December 15, 1933, and June 15 and December 15, 1934, on its indebtedness to the United States, and I have no information that the Belgian Government would be prepared to tender radium in payment of any part thereof. In a communication to the Department of State, dated December 6, 1932,3 the Belgian Embassy stated that the Belgian Government was convinced that a careful examination of the situation would show that the depression has brought it face to face with serious difficulties and that Belgium would be exposed to grave danger if she were asked to resume payments. In a communication dated December 13, 1934,4 the Embassy stated that the Belgian Government regrets that the reasons which prevented it from resuming on December 15, 1932, the payments suspended by the Hoover Moratorium,5 and which had been brought to the attention of the United States Government in previous correspondence, still exist in their entirety.

In the circumstances, I do not wish to make any recommendation for or against the enactment of legislation authorizing the President to accept radium to a value not exceeding $10,000,000 if, as and when the Belgian Government may be prepared to tender it on account of its indebtedness to the Government of United States.

Sincerely yours,

Cordell Hull
  1. Not printed.
  2. Foreign Relations, 1932, vol. i, p. 704.
  3. Department of State, Press Releases, December 15, 1934, p. 357.
  4. See Foreign Relations, 1932, vol. i, pp. 584 ff.