701.60F11/277
Memorandum of Conversation, by the Chief of the Division of European Affairs (Moffat)
The Czechoslovak Minister came in this morning saying that for the first time in a fortnight he felt inclined to smile. The reason was he now believed that his own authorities in Praha, in their heart of hearts, approved the stand that he had taken. In the last two or three days there had been received from Praha some funds for the Consulate General at New York and some funds for the Legation. Obviously the Germans could not watch over every administrative detail, and he regarded this transfer as in the nature of an unwritten message to him.
Even more important, some of the private Czech banks which had money on deposit in New York had transferred their accounts to the National Bank of Czechoslovakia. He, the Minister, could naturally do nothing with accounts in this country of private banks, but this did not apply to deposits of the National Bank. As a matter of fact, he had been in New York and talked the whole situation over with the Chase Bank. The Chase Bank has asked him to write them a letter [Page 63] forbidding them to transfer any money on deposit to the account of the National Bank, back to Czechoslovakia. If there is a lawsuit, the Chase Bank is prepared to defend it.
The Minister went on to say that he felt his primary task was to keep his financial transactions so above-board that he could not become the subject of criticism. He had under his control various sums of money belonging to individuals which he could not transfer to their owners. He asked whether we would accept these funds. I told him that I did not believe we had authority in law to do so, but that this matter should be taken up with the Legal Adviser. He said he would ask Mr. Acheson7 to discuss the matter with Mr. Hackworth.
The Minister then went on to say that he was putting all employees of the Legation and Consulates, except the few that were absolutely essential, on a leave status. They would be carried as absent on our various lists. I told him that if any of them accepted other employment we could naturally not continue to give them immunities or carry their names on any lists. The Minister agreed, and undertook promptly to let us know if and when any of them accepted employment. As a matter of fact, he said that they were having difficulty in securing employment as many firms had answered that as a matter of policy they would not engage aliens who had not yet taken out their first papers. He asked if we could intervene with the A. F. of L. or the C. I. O. I told him that I did not think the Department could do this, but if he chose to send one of his secretaries to the Department of Labor to discuss the employment angle I felt certain he would receive sympathetic consideration.
- Presumably Dean Acheson, Under Secretary of the Treasury in 1933; in private law practice, 1934–41.↩