821.51/2391
Memorandum of Conversation, by the Chief of the Division of the American Republics (Duggan)
The Colombian Ambassador called at my request. I told him that after full consideration in the Department and consultation with Mr. Welles, I was in a position to inform him that if his Government presents to the Council the Laylin formula for a debt settlement the Department will do everything that it appropriately can to secure its acceptance by the Council. I took pains to make it clear to the Ambassador that this was a most unusual step for the Department to take but that it was willing to do so in order to contribute to a solution of the debt problem.
The Ambassador expressed his appreciation for the extent to which the Department was prepared to go to assist in this matter. He reminded me that it was last midsummer that he had expressed his willingness to support before his Government the Laylin formula and that since that time there had been momentous changes in the world. He inquired whether the Department would prefer that he convey to the Colombian Government at once the Department’s disposition to be helpful in the form proposed without his endorsement of the Laylin formula, or await the outcome of his studies to appraise the effect of the war upon Colombian economy for the purpose of determining whether Colombia should now proceed on the basis of the Laylin formula. In explanation, the Ambassador stated that he had requested certain data from Colombia which were expected shortly. He hoped, therefore, to have come to a decision before long as to the desirability of making the Laylin offer at this time.
I informed the Minister that the Department’s willingness to support the Laylin formula before the Council had grown out of the suggestion that the Ambassador present the formula to his Government and support it before his Government, informing it meanwhile that the Department was willing to use its good offices with the Council. I said that that still seemed to me to be the way to proceed, and that I very much hoped that his studies would convince him that Colombia [Page 514] can go ahead and propose the Laylin formula, I pointed out that it would not involve an outlay of funds any greater than that proposed by the Minister of Finance in his proposition.
It was left that the Ambassador would let me know, and he hoped within a few days, of the outcome of his reappraisal of the situation.