840.50/21967/8
Memorandum of Conversation, by the Secretary of State
| Participants: | Secretary of State Hull, Mr. Van den Broek, Minister of Finance of the Netherlands, and Baron W. van Boetzelaer, Chargé d’Affaires |
Mr. Van den Broek, Minister of Finance of the Netherlands, and Baron W. van Boetzelaer, the Chargé d’Affaires, called at their request.
The Chargé handed me a memorandum84 relative to the pending negotiations among the United Nations with a view to working out an agreement on the United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation organization. I said that this matter would be given careful consideration.
I then added with some emphasis that, while the Netherlands Government has its problems in relation to this relief proposal, this Government also has its problems which are not without real difficulty. I then said that there is a disposition in Congress to oppose what are considered extravagant promises of excessive aid to other peoples and other countries, especially by self-constituted spokesmen in this country, and that Congress already is insisting on a careful examination of every phase of the proposed project and is making it plain that it is unwilling to vote vast sums of money for relief to be turned over to just any country or countries, large or small, to be distributed; that such other countries may or may not be making any real contribution to relief, but would or might exercise a controlling authority in making the distribution. I said this will not be acceptable to Congress or to my country; that otherwise there is every disposition to work and to cooperate in the fullest and freest manner with the other United Nations.
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