840.51 Frozen Credits/1007
The Secretary of State to the Rumanian Chargé (Coste)
Sir: Reference is made to your notes no. 4069/P–3–II–3a of December 10, 1940 and no. 4095/P–3–II–3a of December 13, 194036 expressing the view of your Government that the freezing of Rumanian funds by Executive Order no. 8505 of October 10, 1940 is discriminatory and a departure from the most-favored-nation treatment stipulated in Article I of the Provisional Commercial Agreement concluded between the United States and Rumania on August 20, 1930. Particular reference is made to two applications to the United States Treasury Department for licenses to pay from the account of the National Bank of Rumania with the Chase National Bank of New York, sums totalling $3,419,200 to residents of Turkey and Iran in payment for cotton and rubber imported into Rumania from those countries.
Without concurring in the assumptions implicit in your note no. 4069 as to the purposes for which the freezing of certain foreign funds in the United States was adopted and is administered, it is to be noted that the cases under reference raise no question of commercial transactions between the United States and Rumania, but relate to the release of funds for payment of transactions between Rumania and third countries. It would not appear therefore that the provisions of the Provisional Commercial Agreement of August 20, 1930 are pertinent to these cases.
It would not appear necessary, therefore, in the instant cases to examine whether the provisions of the Agreement extend to regulations affecting the means of payment for transactions between Rumania and the United States or whether the administration of Rumanian exchange control regulations has been such as to accord most-favored-nation treatment to nationals of the United States.
Careful examination has, nevertheless, been given to the request of the Rumanian Government that the Department of State intercede with the Treasury Department in order that the sums of $2,730,000 and $689,200 be paid to Maison Pirous, Teheran, Iran and to Mr. John [Page 793] Toyhe, Istanbul, respectively. The Department regrets, however, that it does not feel that it can recommend the granting of licenses for the release of the amounts in question.
Accept [etc.]
- Latter not printed; it requested the Department of State to intercede with the Treasury Department in support of an application for a license to release $689,200 for payment of imported rubber in Istanbul (840.51 Frozen Credits/1031).↩