Foreign Relations of the United States, 1946, General; the United Nations, Volume I

800.515 BWA/1–2646: Circular telegram

The Secretary of State to Certain Diplomatic Missions ⁹

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Washington, January 26, 1946—8 a.m.

The United States is directed by the terms of the Bretton Woods Agreements to call the first meetings of the Boards of Governors of the Bank and the Fund. The Agreements have now come into effect by the necessary number of signatures and you are requested to deliver the following invitation to the government to which you are accredited as soon as possible.

“The Articles of Agreement of the International Monetary Fund and the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development have come into force and the Government of the United States, as the member having the largest quota in the Fund and the largest number of shares in the Bank, has the honor of inviting your government to arrange for your Governor of the Fund and of the Bank to attend the first meetings of the Boards of Governors. The meetings will be held at Wilmington Island, near Savannah, Georgia, on March 8, 1946 for the purpose of establishing the two institutions.¹⁰

“It is the expectation of the Government of the United States that the business of the Boards of Governors can be concluded within a two-week period and arrangements have been made for the accommodation of the Governors and those who accompany them for that period of time. Shortly after the conclusion of the meetings of the Boards of Governors it is expected that the Executive Directors of each institution will begin to function at or near the site selected for the principal office of the Fund and the Bank.

“My Government intends to suggest the adoption of a resolution by the Board of Governors of each institution permitting the admission to membership during a limited period of time of those countries listed in Schedule A¹¹ of each of the Articles of Agreement on the terms set forth in the Articles of Agreement on the terms set forth in the Articles of Agreement. It is our hope that some or all of these governments may be in a position to become members of the Fund and the Bank with sufficient speed to permit them to participate in the first meetings of the Boards of Governors, and we are inviting them to have observers in attendance at these meetings.

“The Government of the United States would appreciate it if you could advise us promptly as to the number of persons representing your government who will attend the first meetings of the Boards of Governors as well as the date and place of their arrival in the United States.”

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 Standard Time on the morning of Monday, January 28. Simultaneously, informative notes will be delivered to the respective missions at Washington. In order to avoid any possibility of premature announcement abroad, you are requested to deliver the note 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.

Owing to the shortness of time, it is essential that the Department obtain immediately at least a rough estimate of the maximum number of persons from each country for whom hotel accommodations may be required. Please endeavor to obtain this information informally and telegraph it at once. Following this, more detailed information will be required concerning individuals and their travel plans. Please telegraph name, title, and delegation function of each individual, including subordinate personnel, and also mode of travel and date and port of entry into the United States. Delegation members should be reminded of the necessity for carrying on their persons suitable credentials identifying them with the meetings. The above points are essential in facilitating entry.¹²

Byrnes

[The Inaugural Meetings of the Boards of Governors of the Fund and the Bank were held at Savannah, Georgia, March 8 to 18, 1916. Important questions settled at these meetings concerned the adoption of by-laws, the location of the principal office of the two institutions, and the salary scale of the executive directors.

The First Annual Meetings of the Boards of Governors of the Fund and the Bank were held at Washington, D. C., September 27 to October 3, 1946.

Before either institution could begin actual operations initial par values for each member’s currency had to be set in the case of the Fund, and in the case of the Bank principles had to be worked out respecting the drawing-upon of national quotas for loan purposes. In both instances internal decisions within the United States Government (the National Advisory Council) had a vital bearing on the outcome. For a table enumerating the initial par values established for the national currencies of 32 of the 39 members of the International Monetary Fund on December 18, 1946, see J. Keith Horsefield (editor), The International Monetary Fund, 1945–1965: Twenty Years of International Cooperation (3 vols.), Volume II: Analysis (International Monetary Fund, Washington, D.C., 1969), p. 84. The par values of each currency were to be expressed “in terms of gold as a common denominator or in terms of the United States dollar of the weight and fineness in effect on July 1, 1944” (i.e., $35 an ounce price of gold). The initial par value set for the United States dollar on December 18, 1946 was 100.000 United States cents per dollar.

A related concern pertained to the assent by the United States to the Bank’s raising funds through the sale of its obligations on the U.S. market in the amount of 500 million dollars.

Published documentation regarding the formal meetings referred to may be found in the series of reports of meetings and annual reports initiated by the two institutions in 1946, In respect of the Savannah meetings unpublished documentation in the Department of State’s unindexed files may be found in several office lot collections, chiefly Lot 54–D84. Relevant documentation (minutes, staff documents, supporting documents) of the National Advisory Council is found in the Department’s unindexed files, Lot 60–D137, Boxes 1 and 8.]

9. Sent to officers at Missions in countries which had signed the agreement. A circular telegram was sent to officers of Missions in countries which had not signed the agreement, inviting their governments to send observers.
10. An abbreviated list of the subject matter which the meetings were expected to consider may be found in the Department of State Bulletin March 3, 1946, p. 331.
11. Schedule A in each of the Bretton Woods Agreements is a list of assigned quotas in the Fund and subscriptions to the Bank, determined for those nations in attendance at the 1944 monetary conference.
12. A list of those who formed the U.S. Delegation at Savannah is to be found in the Department of State Bulletin, March 17, 1946, p. 433. It may be noted, however, that several of the delegates were unable to attend the conference. Among those attending were Fred M. Vinson (Secretary of the Treasury) who had been named United States Governor of the International Monetary Fund, and United States Governor of the International Bank; Harry Dexter White, Assistant Secretary of the Treasury, was appointed United States Executive Director of the Fund; and Emilio G. Collado, who had been Deputy on Financial Affairs to the Assistant Secretary of State, was named United States Executive Director of the Bank. These nominations had been confirmed by the Senate on February 6, 1946 (ibid., February 17, 1946, p. 262).