Circular 600.0031 World Program/28a: telegram
The Secretary of State to the Minister in Austria (Messersmith)1a
Please submit brief telegraphic report on significance of visit of Dr. Schacht, President of the Reichsbank,2 and supplement with full written report.
You will appreciate that narrow bilateral bargaining agreements such as Germany and certain other European countries are endeavoring to make at this time may seriously interfere with our broader trade agreements program. If this narrow bilateral policy is greatly expanded its inevitable result will be further world-wide restriction of international trade and subsequent increase in unemployment and increasing dangerous political difficulties. Our policy has been fully explained in instructions and radio bulletins which have been sent to you, perhaps the most comprehensive being my address on May 22 in New York.3
When opportunity offers, our broad objective should be explained to members and officials of the government to which you are accredited, pointing out the ultimate dangers of bilateral agreements in the long run. Several of the most important trading nations both in Europe and in this hemisphere have already become convinced of the benefits of the policy which we are now following.
Repeat to Budapest, Belgrade, Athens, and Sofia.