800.51W89 Belgium/287: Telegram
The Secretary of State to the Ambassador in Belgium ( Morris )
9. Referring to your letter of February 3 and its enclosure,2 Belgian Chargé d’Affaires3 here has since asked, under instructions from his Government, whether visit of the Prime Minister would be agreeable to the President. At the direction of the President he has now been informed that the visit would be agreeable. He was further informed that, while the President has no authority from Congress to make any arrangements with respect to the existing war debt agreements, the President would be ready to have him bring up in his conversations any matters which he would deem to be of mutual interest to Belgium and the United States; that in making his plans for his visit to Washington they be arranged in such a manner as not to give rise to any conjecture that the debt question is to be touched upon in the conversations he might have while here; that any discussion of the debt question while in Washington be treated in the same manner; and that it might be desirable that he not be accompanied by officials whose positions in the Belgian Government might indicate that the war debt would be a topic of conversation.
Please keep me informed of any further developments in this regard.
As the Belgian Chargé has been informed of the above it would not seem necessary for you to take any action thereon.