611.6231/675
Memorandum by the Secretary of State
The German Ambassador called after having spent one or two months in Germany. He was in a thoroughly amiable mood. He first stated that he thought I would be interested, if not glad, to learn that a definite step looking towards the payment by his Government of the Dawes loan debt service was being taken with the bankers representing the holders of this paper; that the matter was confidential at present, but that he felt this would prove satisfactory to the Dawes-Young creditors. The Ambassador then definitely indicated that this was a first step in the direction of the resumption of former relations of a commercial and economic nature with the United States, provided the United States was so disposed. He said again that Dr. Schacht and others were definitely of the opinion that the bilateral trade method practiced by Germany for some time had proven hurtful upon the whole rather than helpful; that they were now very strongly behind the economic program which the United States was undertaking to carry forward as it related to international relationships, and that as conditions made it possible his Government would manifest its interest in this program. He said he hoped, therefore, that it might be possible to negotiate more desirable and closer trade relations between the two countries in conformity with the fundamentals of the United States reciprocity program. There was some general comment upon world economic conditions and the fact that they would continue more or less chaotic, barring some improvement in domestic economics here and there, until trade barriers, especially comprising exchange stabilization and the removal or reduction of trade barriers generally, not to omit international debts as a minor factor, had been dealt with in a reasonable, practical and satisfactory way.
I expressed the great interest this Government felt in the proposed steps of the German Government with respect to payment of debt [Page 457] service and the gradual working out of mutually profitable trade relations, and referred to my last reply19 to the German note on the subject and the views therein set forth.
- Supra. ↩