868.51/1675
The Secretary of State to President Roosevelt
My Dear Mr. President: You will recall that King George and Prime Minister Tsouderos of Greece, during their visit to this country last June,86 stated that the resources of the Greek Government were declining rapidly and appealed for financial assistance.87 You indicated that some arrangements should be made whereby the Greek Government could be kept going.
A financial report was eventually received from the Greek Government, and was supplemented by figures obtained from the Treasury and the British Government, with which we discussed this question. It appeared, in brief: That the Greek Government would nearly exhaust its immediate resources early this year and be faced by a prospective deficit of some $10,000,000 in the fiscal year 1943–44; that the British have been aiding the Greeks by equipping their armed forces in the Middle East and are prepared, in general, to meet Greek needs within the sterling area; and that our problem was thus mainly one of providing aid required by the Greek Government in meeting its dollar expenses.
As you know, there is no legislative authorization for direct credits to the refugee Governments, although the question of possible legislation for this purpose has been under consideration for some time, principally in connection with Polish needs. In any case, however, it seemed preferable to meet the Greek appeal under existing legislation if this were possible, and the matter has been pursued on this line.
By far the heaviest dollar obligation burdening the Greek Government was the payment of the charter-hire on Swedish vessels engaged in the Greek relief scheme, amounting to approximately $1,000,000 per month. Following discussions between the interested agencies [Page 175] and on the recommendation of this Department,88 the Lend-Lease Administration has taken over this expenditure as from January 1, 1943.
I believe that this assistance should adequately meet the need of the Greeks for dollars, at least for the time being. They appear still to have a small dollar balance of Government funds on hand and to have a modest dollar income from a few Greek vessels chartered to the Swiss. Their other expenditures requiring dollars consist principally of expenses connected with the maintenance of their representation in countries outside the sterling block. These can probably be met for an indefinite period from the Greek Government’s own resources, possibly supplemented by modest advances from their own Bank of Issue, which holds some $19,000,000 in dollar balances.
In addition, the Greek War Relief Association of New York is planning, with the approval of the President’s War Relief Control Board and of this Department, to undertake a program of assistance to the Greek refugees in the Near East and Africa. This will provide further financial relief for the Greek Government, which has been obliged to support a constantly increasing burden in caring for these persons.
I attach for your consideration and approval89 a copy of a note which I propose to send to the Greek Ambassador90 regarding this question.
Faithfully yours,
- For information concerning the visit to the United States of George II, King of the Hellenes, see Foreign Relations, 1942, vol. ii, p. 797.↩
- See memorandum of June 15, 1942, by the Greek Prime Minister, ibid., p. 798.↩
- Letter of April 14, 1943, from Assistant Secretary of State Long to W. M. Simmons, Assistant Administrator of the Office of Lend-Lease Administration, not printed.↩
- Marginal notation by President Roosevelt on April 29: “CH OK FDR”.↩
- Infra. ↩