102.1/9–144: Telegram

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

7080. From the Department, Treasury and FEA. The immediately following cable22a quotes airgrams which have been sent to our missions in Portugal, Spain, Sweden,23 and Turkey.24

In cable No. 6224 of August 7,25 you were requested to discuss with the British the desirability of instituting negotiations with the Governments of Portugal, Spain, Turkey and Sweden, looking toward acceptance by those Governments of a satisfactory gold policy. We hope you will succeed in obtaining British concurrence at the earliest possible date to the proposals contained in the above airgrams to the American Missions in those countries. You should advise our Missions in Portugal, Spain, Turkey and Sweden as soon as parallel instructions have gone forward from the British Government. If any delay is indicated please cable full details immediately.

A separate message will be sent to you on the Swiss negotiations.

Hull
  1. No. 7081, infra.
  2. Airgram 472, September 2, 10 a.m., to Madrid, repeated on the same date as airgrams 706 and 228 to Lisbon and Stockholm, respectively, for the attention of Treasury representatives Wood and Olsen.
  3. Airgram 146, September 2, 9 a.m., repeated airgram 472 with the following additional paragraph: “There should be no difficulty in obtaining Turkish concurrence in the desired gold policy in view of her break with Germany. Immediate action on the part of Turkey to refuse to buy Axis-tainted gold from the European neutral countries (it is assumed that Turkey will not now knowingly buy gold from Germany) would be a substantial contribution toward making more difficult Germany’s efforts to obtain needed foreign exchange by the sale of gold. Moreover, gold imported before the break in relations might be in the process of transfer within Turkish borders.” (800.515/9–244)
  4. Not printed.