800.515/1010c: Telegram
The Secretary of State to the Ambassador in the United Kingdom (Winant)
3077. From Secretary Morgenthau. I am very grateful to you for the prompt reply from the Chancellor of the Exchequer.
Please give this message to the Chancellor of the Exchequer:
“1. I wish to express my thanks to the Chancellor of the Exchequer for his message of April 15.22
2. At the request of the Congressional leaders, my appearance before the appropriate Congressional committees has been postponed to Friday, April 21. In consequence of this modification, we shall release the Joint Statement to the press at 8:00 p.m. April 21, Washington time.
In accordance with previous arrangements with Opie we have asked Moscow and Chungking, as well as some of the American Republics23 to join in the publication of the Joint Statement. We are also sending a summary, but not the text of the Joint Statement, to all of the American Republics with whom we have consulted.
We assume you will make similar arrangements for informing the Dominions and governments in London and Cairo prior to publication, and to arrange, if possible, for simultaneous publication or announcements by some of these countries.
We have discussed with Opie the issuance of an explanatory statement to the press at the time the text of the Joint Statement is released. He will inform you of our general agreement with the statement you suggest and with the slight modification we propose. It is my understanding that the explanatory statements issued in Washington and London will not be precisely the same in language although they will convey the same meaning.
Mr. White and Mr. Opie have examined in detail the arrangement previously agreed upon for steps following the publication of the [Page 119] Joint Statement on the Fund. As Mr. Opie will have informed you, it has long been clearly understood that after the publication of the Joint Statement on the Fund there would be opportunity for debate in Parliament. Promptly after the conclusion of the debates, we will raise with you the immediate issuance of invitations to a conference of the United and Associated Nations on the establishment of international agencies for postwar financial cooperation. As I have previously explained, a prompt decision on this matter would make it possible for us to hold a formal conference at the end of May in accordance with the preference expressed by the President.
3. We have transmitted to Winant the text of a proposed Joint Statement on the establishment of a Bank for Reconstruction and Development24 with the request that he furnish it to you. The Joint Statement is confined to an exposition of those principles which should govern a Bank for Reconstruction and Development on which we feel there could be no disagreement among the technical experts.
Mr. White told Mr. Opie this morning that when I appear before the Congressional committees on Friday I will be compelled to report to them on the results of the technical discussions on the Bank for Reconstruction and Development. Obviously, I would like to be able to report that the experts of the United States and the United Kingdom are in agreement on a statement of principles on the establishment of the Bank, and at the same time make the statement available to the Congressional committees. I am not unmindful of the short notice you have received on this proposal. If your experts cannot indicate their agreement at once, but feel that agreement might be reached on a statement if postponed for a week, I could inform the Congressional committees that the technical experts of the United States and the United Kingdom have come to a large measure of agreement and hope to issue a joint statement of principles within another week.
On the other hand if it should not seem feasible to the experts of the United Kingdom to join with the experts of the United States in issuing a Joint Statement on the Bank within the next week or so, I shall explain frankly to the Congressional committees that there has not been opportunity to reach agreement with the technical experts of all of the countries. I will then release this statement on the establishment of a Bank for Reconstruction and Development as representing the views of the technical experts of the United States and having the approval of the experts of a number of other countries, but not including the United Kingdom. I shall, of course, add that it is my hope that after further study the experts of the United Kingdom will see their way clear to join in subscribing to this statement of principles.
As I must make arrangements immediately on the material to be presented to the Congressional committees, I should appreciate a prompt reply indicating which of these courses on the Bank you would prefer. I hope you will understand that the urgency for a decision is one forced upon me by circumstances.”
Hull