823.24/7–1844

The Ambassador in Peru ( White ) to the Secretary of State

No. 880

Sir: Referring to the Department’s confidential instruction No. 3386 of July 8, 1944, enclosing copies of notes dated December 16, 1942 and July 8, 1944,18 the latter requesting payment by Peru of $3,585,000 on the Peruvian Government’s $8,667,247.68 debt to the United States, I have the honor to recall that during the recent dollar debt discussions19 Finance Minister East emphasized the preferential place of lend-lease settlements as compared with the dollar debt, as given in despatch No. 143, dated April 24, 1944.17

I do not know whether the presentation of the above-mentioned bill to the Peruvian Embassy in Washington had any connection with this [Page 1510] attitude of the Peruvian Government, but in any case it seems that the coincidence is a very fortunate one and should tend to emphasize that our government is collection-minded.

Respectfully yours,

J. C. White
  1. Instruction No. 3386 of July 8, 1944, and enclosed note of December 16, 1942, not printed; note of July 8 printed supra.
  2. For correspondence on these discussions, see pp. 1568 ff.
  3. Not printed.