840.51 Frozen Credits/3714/9
Memorandum by Mr. Edward G. Miller, Jr., of the Foreign Funds Control Division, to the Assistant Secretary of State (Acheson)
Mr. Nisiyama, Financial Attaché of the Japanese Embassy, came in to Foreign Funds Control at 3.30 this afternoon and conferred with Messrs. Towson and Fox of the Treasury Department, and the undersigned. Referring to the question of payment by the Japanese for pending shipment of oil from this country to Japan, Mr. Nisiyama stated that he had been advised by the State Department that the Treasury Department wished to ask him certain questions with respect to the proposed method to be employed by the Japanese in effecting the payments. Mr. Towson referred to conversations which he had had with Mr. Nisiyama yesterday and stated that in the event that the Japanese were able to obtain the transfer of dollar assets from South America into this country to be used in payment for the oil, the Treasury Department would be interested in considering an application for a license permitting such funds to be applied to the payment, but that until Mr. Nisiyama had made the arrangements [Page 870] for the transfer of the funds to this country and was in a position to set forth in an application all the relevant facts, the Treasury would be in no position to express an opinion on this subject. Mr. Nisiyama asked Mr. Towson whether he would be able to express an opinion based on a hypothetical set of facts involving the assumption that the Japanese were able to arrange with various foreign exchange controls in South America for the transfer to this country of funds sufficient in the aggregate to pay for pending oil shipments. Mr. Towson repeated that until a concrete case were submitted to the Treasury in the form of an application he could express no opinion. Mr. Nisiyama then stated that he assumed from Mr. Towson’s remarks that the Treasury Department would be interested in the source of the funds, and the manner in which they had been accumulated in South America. Mr. Towson agreed that the Treasury would wish to consider these matters very carefully when an application was submitted.
Mr. Nisiyama then stated that he would continue his efforts to arrange for the transfer of funds to this country before making an application, and that he hoped that within a few days he would be in a position to make application for a Treasury license.