800.515/586
The British Treasury Representative in the United States (Phillips) to the Assistant Secretary of State (Berle)
Dear Mr. Berle: I have received the draft International Stabilization Fund proposals and the covering Memorandum which you enclosed in your letter of February 1. The documents were immediately sent to London and their views on the substance of the proposals will be received in due course. After mentioning the matter to the Ambassador, however, I feel that the question of procedure raised in the last paragraph of your letter requires urgent consideration.
The Chancellor of the Exchequer7 and the other Ministers concerned are most anxious that the procedure adopted should be such as to ensure effective discussion and real progress towards the formulation of a single and agreed scheme. It is not possible for them to express a considered view as to the procedure until the document has reached London and has received preliminary study. We regard it as essential that the United States document should not be communicated to the United and Associated Nations other than the U.S.S.R. and China until the documents have been seen in London and agreed plans for future procedure have been formulated. Meanwhile we have no indication whether our answers to the questions on the Clearing Union raised by the American experts made the Clearing Union Plan sufficiently clear to them or when we may expect your further comments on it. Such comments would greatly help in making progress in the discussions as a whole. The American memorandum and the Clearing Union Plan have a great deal in common and are not so far apart as to preclude the usefulness of trying to conflate them. This is the course which we should much prefer.
Yours sincerely,
- Sir Kingsley Wood.↩