800.515/866a: Telegram
The Acting Secretary of State to the Ambassador in the Soviet Union (Harriman)
1075. From Secretary of the Treasury for Harriman.
“With reference to the matter I discussed with you in Algiers,68 a copy of the letter I sent to Secretary Hull before his departure69 is as follows:
‘October 5, 1943. Dear Cordell:
Last April a draft of the International Stabilization Fund proposal was submitted to the Russian Government by Mr. Berle together with a letter expressing the hope that the Soviet Government would send technical experts to this country to discuss the proposal with our technical experts here. Soon thereafter, Mr. Gromyko70 stated that his Government was keenly interested in the postwar monetary proposals and wished to obtain as much information on the subject as possible from us. The Soviet Government did have present an observer at some of the group conferences of technicians that were held here, but so far have not sent any experts to discuss the proposal with our experts.
About 2 months ago, when Mr. Gromyko was here, I mentioned to him the fact that the Russian experts had not yet come to Washington [Page 1098] and expressed the view that we thought that it would be helpful if he could inform his Government that the conversations with the experts of most of the other Associated Nations had already taken place and that we had hoped that the U.S.S.R. would send experts to this country to discuss these problems with us before any decision was made with respect to the holding of a formal conference.
Mr. Gromyko replied that he thought it was desirable for his Government to send technical experts and said that he had so informed his Government and that he would again communicate that view to his Government.
To date we have not heard from them and wondered if you would care to mention the subject when you are in Moscow and encourage them to send their experts here.71 I think that you will agree that it will be unfortunate if we have to go forward with any formal discussions of postwar monetary problems among the United Nations without having had an opportunity of discussing them with the experts from the U.S.S.R.
Sincerely,
(signed) Henry.
The Honorable Cordell Hull,
Secretary of
State,
Washington, D.C’”
- The Secretary of the Treasury had arrived at Algiers on October 19, 1943, on an air tour of the Mediterranean battle fields.↩
- For Moscow, as delegate to the Moscow Conference of Foreign Ministers.↩
- Andrey Gromyko, Soviet Chargé in the United States from May 10 to October 4, 1943, when he became the Soviet Ambassador in the United States.↩
- The note of October 24, 1943, which the Secretary of State addressed to the People’s Commissar for Foreign Affairs is not printed.↩