662.0031/89
Memorandum by the Secretary of State of a Conversation With the German Ambassador (Luther)
The Ambassador during his call handed to me a copy of some extracts from an address5 by Dr. Schacht, president of the German Reichsbank, at the Leipzig Fair, on March 4th, and remarked that the views expressed by Dr. Schacht on international trade were in harmony with my own. He then called attention to Dr. Schacht’s statements in the speech emphasizing the loss of trade Germany had suffered in its efforts to operate the purely bilateral bargaining and bartering method of trade with other countries, together with such clearing and other arbitrary devices as went with it. I asked the Ambassador if the German Government itself was behind or connected with any German purchases of goods from abroad where it was proposed to pay in untransferable Reichsmarks of uncertain and changing value which in turn were required to be invested in German goods or in Germany. The Ambassador then referred to the proposed [Page 441] cotton deal with cotton agents in this country and said that his Government had nothing whatever to do with it; that it was initiated and carried on by some individual cotton dealers or persons interested in the cotton business in Bremen; that therefore his Government was not in any sense behind or connected with the proposed cotton deal with this country some months ago.
The Ambassador emphasized and reemphasized what he called the soundness of the economic program being pursued by the State Department here. He stated very earnestly that the attitude of his Government a year ago was in favor of a suitable trade agreement with this Government that would as fully and as normally as possible restore trade relations, and that that was the true and exact attitude of his Government now, or, in other words, one of absolute readiness to negotiate. I expressed interest and stated that Germany along with England and a number of other important countries were being kept specially in mind by us.
- Not printed.↩