500.C1199/291
Memorandum by the Secretary of State
The British Chargé, Mr. Mallet, came in at my invitation. I proceeded to say, very earnestly, that during the past two or three years the reports of the Finance Committee and the Economic Committee at Geneva have been virtually colorless; that at the behest of big business men from different important countries they have been watered down until they virtually have amounted to nothing; that these steps of inaction and inertia have been going on for two or three years on the part of those who should have been resolutely carrying forward a basic program for liberal commercial policy and general economic rehabilitation; that although the forces of militarism and aggression have been carrying on and are endeavoring today to assert world supremacy, the forces of peace and economic rehabilitation are standing still in their tracks so far as Europe is concerned, and it is my hope that the economic and financial committees at Geneva will proceed to function. I sought to leave the impression definitely in the mind of the Chargé that British influences were a major factor in chloroforming the economic situation at Geneva.