893.51/7039
Memorandum of Conversation, by the Adviser on Political Relations (Hornbeck)
The Chinese Ambassador36 called on me and said that he had been instructed by his Government to inquire whether there was not something that the Department of State might do toward giving a push to the matter of a new credit or loan, associated with tin, by the United States to China. The Ambassador said that the details of a transaction for sale and purchase of tin have all been worked out in the Treasury Department, and that Mr. Morgenthan37 favors going ahead with the matter; that the only present obstacle appears to be the problem of finding (here in Washington) the necessary funds; and that his Government evidently felt that the Department of State might, if [Page 638] it saw fit, contribute by pressing for the consummation of the transaction. I said that I would bring the matter to the attention of higher officers of the Department.