800.51W89 France/1049
Suggested Draft of a Letter for the Signature of President Roosevelt to the Ambassador in France (Straus)38
Dear Mr. Ambassador: I see again from your letter of May 23 how alertly you follow matters.
We have not suggested and are not likely to suggest that war debts and stabilization should be joined in any discussion or negotiation. This would complicate the handling of the two dissimilar problems, each of which is difficult in itself.
I am glad to have your assurance that you discuss war debt settlement projects with French officials only on a purely personal and unofficial basis. Any proposals must come from the debtors, and we must be free to consider them on their merits.
We probably should not wish to relate debt payments too closely to American purchases of foreign goods and services, except in the possible case of some unusual type of purchases. We sell almost all these countries much more than we buy from them. Many countries already have the idea of limiting their purchases in the United States to the amount they can pay for the dollars obtained directly from Americans for goods and services. If they apply these dollars to debt payments, they may not wish to get dollars elsewhere to buy American goods. Several debtors still have large stocks of gold and other means of making debt payments here besides their own sales here, tourist expenses, et cetera.
We were interested by Mr. Blum’s address before the American Club and hope that he will soon find himself in a position to pursue the matter.
Very sincerely yours,
- Drafted on June 25, 1936, by Frederick Livesey, Office of the Economic Adviser. No record as to whether President Roosevelt sent this letter has been found in the Department’s files.↩