Office of the Historian

893.51/5–1645

The Secretary of the Treasury (Morgenthau) to Major General A. H. Carter 67

[Washington,] May 16, 1945.

Dear General Carter: As you know, the Treasury through the services provided by the War Department has from time to time shipped gold to Assam, India, for the account of the Government of China.

The Secretary of the Treasury, after consultation with President Truman, has agreed to transfer $180 million of gold to China’s earmarked gold account in New York for shipment to China during the next eight months. Moreover, we have agreed with the Chinese to ship during the same period an additional $9 million of gold already held by them on earmark with the Federal Reserve Bank of New York.

It will be necessary therefore for me to make requests from time to time for the shipment by air or by sea of the total amount of about $189 million of gold during the next eight months according to the attached schedule.68 It will be noted that 300,000 ounces are to be shipped by air during the month of May in addition to 700,000 ounces by boat during the same month.

Sincerely yours,

H. Morgenthau, Jr.
  1. Copy transmitted to the Department by Mr. Morgenthau on May 16. General Carter was Fiscal Director, Army Service Forces, War Department.↩
  2. Not printed.↩