890F.515/8–1044
The Secretary of State to the Secretary of the Treasury (Morgenthau)
My Dear Mr. Secretary: The United States Government and the Government of the United Kingdom have recently reached agreement [Page 726] upon a joint supply program for Saudi Arabia for the calendar year 1944. This program contemplates that part of this Government’s contribution will consist of provision of ten million silver riyal coins which it is estimated will be adequate to meet the coinage requirements of Saudi Arabia for the balance of the current calendar year.
The Department of State recommends that sufficient silver for the coinage of these ten million riyal coins be made available from the Treasury’s stocks of silver under a Lend Lease arrangement similar to that under which fifteen million coins were provided during the calendar year 1943.28 The assistance of the Treasury in implementing such an arrangement will be appreciated.29
Sincerely yours,
Assistant Secretary
- A letter from the Acting Secretary of the Treasury (Bell), August 10, which crossed this one, dealt with this same question. Among other things, it pointed out that “This Government has already provided under lend-lease arrangements the silver necessary for the coining of 25 million Saudi Arabian riyals of which 10 million riyals are covered by special collateral arrangements to assure the return of the silver”, and requested the assurance of the Department that a new loan would be “important to the foreign policy of the United States.” (890F.515/8–1044)↩
- In a letter of August 23 to the Secretary of the Treasury (Morgenthau) Assistant Secretary Acheson reiterated the importance which the Department of State attached to the new program. In turn, a letter by the Assistant Secretary on August 26 informed the Foreign Economic Administrator (Crowley) of the new program, and asked the assistance of the FEA in implementing it (890F.24/8–2644).↩