Office of the Historian

800.515/605: Telegram

The Ambassador in the United Kingdom (Winant) to the Secretary of State

London, April 15, 1943—4 p.m.
[Received 4:50 p.m.]

2648. For Secretary of Treasury from Casaday. Department’s 2378, April 14, midnight. There has been some confusion among representatives of the exiled governments here as to the nature of the invitation expressed in Secretary Morgenthau’s letter of March 4.32 It is not known whether the intention is to hold a series of inclusive meetings or conferences attended by representatives of all interested governments at the same time or a series of separate conferences with the representatives of each individual country held when and as each representative may be able to attend.

The representatives of several of the exiled governments here have asked me for information on the above in view of their tentative plans to have the same delegates attend not only the monetary conference or conferences but the Food,33 Relief and possible other conferences as well. Preliminary to making the inquiries you instruct me to undertake in the telegram referred to, it would be helpful to know:

1.
Whether you plan to have meetings with representatives of each government singly or meetings which are attended by representatives of all the governments simultaneously.
2.
In either event how long a period and roughly what month or months does the Treasury feel the monetary conference ought to cover? There is a rumor here for example that the monetary conferences will not begin until fall while one London paper this morning states that the monetary conference has been postponed from April to May. This is causing confusion and a number of inquiries have been made on the point.
3.
Is it likely that the monetary conferences will be held at such times as to permit the delegates to attend other conferences as well?

For your information I have already been informed without inquiry that the following intend to be in Washington during the month of May: Baron René Boel, Belgium; Dr. P. W. Kuo, China; Dr. Beneš and Dr. J. V. Mladek, Czechoslovakia. [Casaday.]

Winant
  1. See footnote 9, p. 1058.↩
  2. For correspondence regarding the Conference on Food and Agriculture, held at Hot Springs, Va., May 18–June 3, 1943, see pp. 820 ff.↩