800.515/9–2944: Circular telegram
The Secretary of State to Certain Diplomatic Representatives 42
Re Flight of Axis Capital to Neutral Countries
“The delegates of the 44 nations assembled at the United Nations Monetary and Financial Conference at Bretton Woods, New Hampshire, adopted the following resolution. (Here quote the text of the Resolution as set forth in the Department’s circular airgram of August 22 [19],1944.)
I have been instructed to inform you that my Government, considering the Bretton Woods Resolution to be directed at the same purposes as the Declaration of London, of January 5, 1943, with respect to looted property, and the declaration of February 22, 1944, concerning gold, fully supports the said Bretton Woods Resolution. In accordance with the terms of that Resolution, I am instructed therefore to state that my Government calls upon your Government to institute such measures as will fulfill the aims of the United Nations as expressed in the Resolution. I am further instructed to state that my Government considers cooperation in this matter to be of primary importance to the welfare of occupied nations and to the protection of the lives and property of their nationals, and to the peace and security of the post-war world.”
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The diplomatic representatives in Ireland, Morocco, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, and Turkey. (None of these Governments had agreed to implement the Resolution by the end of the year 1944.) Repeated on the same date to the diplomatic representatives in the United Kingdom and the Soviet Union. Also repeated in a circular telegram at 5 p.m. on the same date to the diplomatic representatives in Australia, Bolivia, Brazil, Canada, Chile, China, Colombia, Costa Rica, Cuba, Denmark, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Egypt (repeated for Greece and Yugoslavia), El Salvador, Ethiopia, France, Great Britain (repeated for Belgium, Czechoslovakia, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Norway, and Poland), Guatemala, Haiti, Honduras, Iceland, India, Iran, Iraq, Liberia, Mexico, New Zealand, Nicaragua, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, Union of South Africa, Uruguay, and Venezuela.
Telegram 143, September 29, 5 p.m., informed the diplomatic representative in Morocco that “the note in question should be handed to the Spanish High Commissioner [Orgaz] with the explanation that simultaneous representations are being made by the American Embassy at Madrid.” (800.515/9–2944) The Spanish High Commissioner informed Chargé Childs (despatch 2385, October 6, from Tangier) that a copy of the note would be transmitted to Madrid, which would decide upon the policy with respect to metropolitan and Spanish territory, as well as any Spanish possessions and the zone of the Protectorate (800.515/10–644).
Telegram 849, October 2, 6 p.m., to the diplomatic representative in Turkey, informed him that if note had not already been presented to the Turkish Government, he was authorized, in concert with his British colleague, to alter the terms of the note in a manner deemed appropriate by him to reflect the different status of Turkey from European countries preserving strict neutrality, in view of Turkey’s break of relations with Germany (800.515/10–244).
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