893.51/7049a: Telegram

The Secretary of State to the Ambassador in Japan (Grew)

82. Department’s 419, December 15, 7 p.m., 1938.52

1. On March 7 Jesse Jones, Federal Loan Administrator, issued a statement as follows:

“The trustees of the Export-Import Bank have allocated $20,000,000 for additional loans to finance exports to China, also $10,000,000 for exports to Denmark, and $1,000,000 to Iceland.

The proceeds of these loans may only be expended for purchases in this country and no part of the money may be used for arms, ammunition or implements of war listed in the President’s proclamation under the Neutrality Act of 1939.53

A large part of the exports to Denmark and Iceland will be agricultural products.”

2. The Export-Import Bank has informed the Department informally that the credit to finance exports to China will be handled in substantially the same way as the credit made available in December 1938 except that China will pay off the new credit with shipments of tin and other products instead of wood oil.

The credits referred to above, as other credits previously made by the Export-Import Bank, are in furtherance of the purposes for which the bank was established, namely, the facilitation of the import and export trade of the United States.

Hull
  1. Foreign Relations, 1938, vol. iii, p. 586.
  2. Approved November 4, 1939; 54 Stat. 4, 11.