Office of the Historian

890F.515/48

Memorandum of Conversation, by Mr. Paul F. McGuire of the Office of the Adviser on International Economic Affairs (Feis)

[Washington,] September 17, 1943.
Participants: Mr. D. H. Robertson—Representing the British Treasury.
Mr. W. G. Hayter—First Secretary, British Embassy.
Messrs. Bernstein, Mikesell, Friedman and Glendinning, United States Treasury.
Messrs. Livesey, Parker and McGuire, Department of State.

Mr. Moose, the American Minister Resident at Jidda, had informed the Department that Mr. Jordan, newly appointed British Minister Resident at Jidda, was paying a visit to King Ibn Saud to present his credentials and was taking with him a draft law presumably embodying previous British proposals for establishment of a paper currency system in Saudi Arabia under the supervision of a currency board with headquarters in London. The British Minister would be in Riyadh approximately one week before Moose and Gunter, American Treasury representative, were to visit the King to discuss financial matters. To avoid any appearance of conflict between British and American aims, it was decided that a meeting should be held with British officials in Washington, at which we would make clear, in a tactful manner, that we desired, and expected, to work jointly with the British on any plan for establishing a permanent currency system for Saudi Arabia.

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At the meeting, Mr. Parker made a simple statement of our desire to work out a mutually satisfactory plan, and the British representatives said that they fully understood, and that they would inform the British Treasury.

Mr. Robertson said that while he was not well enough informed to speak with authority until he heard from London, he had understood that action on paper currency was not urgent in view of the provision of Saudi Arabia’s silver needs for the balance of this year under Lend-Lease, and he thought that the British Minister’s discussions with the King would be of an exploratory nature only.

Mr. Bernstein said that he would be glad to arrange further conversations as soon as the British were ready to discuss the details of the plan, and that we would be giving consideration to the matter in the meantime.