800.515/1087a: Circular telegram
The Secretary of State to Certain American Diplomatic Representatives 38
By direction of the President you are requested to deliver the following invitation to the Government to which you are accredited:
“The publication of the Joint Statement of Technical Experts recommending the establishment of an International Monetary Fund and setting forth the principles for such a Fund has been deeply gratifying to this Government as marking an important step toward post-war international economic cooperation. Undoubtedly the Government [Page 133] and people of . . . . . have been equally pleased by this evidence of the common desire of the United Nations and the nations associated with them in the war to cooperate in meeting the economic problems of the post-war world.
“The President of the United States of America now proposes, as a further step toward the realization of this objective, to call a conference of the United Nations and the nations associated with them, for the purpose of formulating definite proposals for an International Monetary Fund and possibly a Bank for Reconstruction and Development. It would be understood of course that the delegates would not be required to hold plenipotentiary powers and that the proposals formulated at the conference would be referred to the respective governments and authorities for their acceptance or rejection.
“I have the honor, therefore, on behalf of the President, cordially to invite your Excellency’s Government to send one or more delegates to participate in a formal monetary and financial conference of the United Nations and the nations associated with them to be held in the United States beginning July 1, 1944. I am pleased to inform your Excellency that the delegation of the United States to the conference will be headed by the Secretary of the Treasury. The names of the other delegates of my Government, as well as information regarding the seat of the conference and arrangements for the meeting will be communicated to your Excellency at a later date.39
“Because of my Government’s belief that the formulation of definite proposals for an International Monetary Fund and a Bank for Reconstruction and Development in the near future is a matter of vital concern to all of the United Nations and the nations associated with them, my Government sincerely hopes to receive the favorable reply of your Excellency’s Government at the earliest possible moment, together with the names of all members of the . . . . . delegation.”
Important for the Information of the Mission
An announcement concerning the extension of the invitations will be made at Washington at 11 o’clock eastern war time on the morning of Friday, May 26. Simultaneously informative notes will be delivered to the respective missions at Washington.40 In order to avoid any possibility of premature announcement abroad you are requested to deliver the notes containing the foregoing text as near as possible or feasible to the Washington release hour. Caution should be exercised of course to assure delivery of invitation prior to the arrival of press despatches from Washington. Meanwhile the matter should be kept in the strictest confidence.
- In countries constituting the United Nations and nations associated with them in the war. A separate telegram, No. 1633, was sent to the representative at Algiers for the French Committee of National Liberation. For list of governments and authorities invited to participate in the conference, see Department of State Bulletin, May 27, 1944, p. 498.↩
- Department’s circular telegram of June 3 (not printed) gave Bretton Woods, N.H., as the selected site of the conference and contained detailed information regarding arrangements for the conference. For list of American delegates to the conference, see Department of State Bulletin, June 24, 1944, p. 587.↩
- See ibid., May 27, 1944, p. 498.↩