Office of the Historian

800.515/861

Mr. H. D. White, Assistant to the Secretary of the Treasury (Morgenthau), to the Adviser on International Economic Affairs (Feis)

Washington, October 7, 1943.

Dear Mr. Feis: In accordance with the request of the Combined Civil Affairs Committee26 at its meeting of September 29, 1943, the representatives of the American and British Treasuries conferred together with a view to deciding upon types of currencies to be used in the friendly countries in Europe and the conditions under which they would be so employed.

It is understood that the United States armed forces will utilize yellow-seal dollars during the spearhead operations and the British will cable London concerning the type of spearhead currency to be used by the British and Canadian Forces.

With respect to the locally-denominated currencies held or being printed under order of the friendly governments, there appears to be a difference in viewpoint between the two Treasuries as to the conditions under which we should accept such currencies for use during the stage of military occupation. There is attached a memorandum which discusses the matters.27 In the case of France, since the amounts of Metropolitan francs available to the Allies are limited and since there are no stocks of any specially-prepared franc currency available, it has been agreed that if it is necessary to use a supplementary currency, then the Allied Military Franc will be so used. This Allied Military Franc will be similar to the Allied Military Lire except for the change in the name of the country, the name of the currency and the designation, “Emis en France.”

Both Treasuries are agreed that there would be considerable difficulty in printing and satisfying the demands of the various countries if we were to use different kinds of Allied Military Currency in the various areas. In the case of Holland, Belgium and the friendly countries other than France, if their stocks of currency are not adequate for military purposes, we should be prepared to use A. M. Currencies for supplementary purposes.

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The attached memorandum reviews the conditions under which we think the local currencies of the friendly governments should be accepted for use in military operations. It would be appreciated if you would let us have your views on the matters dealt with in this memorandum at the earliest possible date, so that we may proceed in the negotiations with the British and the appropriate officials of the various refugee governments.

Very truly yours,

H. D. White
  1. Established in July 1943 by the Combined Chiefs of Staff to recommend civil affairs policies for enemy or enemy-held areas that were occupied by combined operations and to coordinate military and civilian agency interests in such matters.↩
  2. Missing from Department files.↩