841.51/9–1847
The Ambassador in the United Kingdom (Douglas) to the Secretary of State
No. 2110
Sir: I have the honor to refer to the Department’s cable No. 3944, dated September 10, 1947, concerning further postponement of certain obligations of the U.K. under the Anglo-American Financial Agreement.
Upon receipt of this cable the recommendation of the NAC staff committee outlined in the cable was taken up with the NAC who were present in London, including Secretary Snyder and Messrs. Clayton, Martin and Knapp. The letters recommended by NAC staff committee were approved without inclusion of the paragraphs dealing with retroactive convertibility.
On the basis of this NAC action, Messrs. Friedman, Pumphrey and Gunter of the U.S. Treasury discussed the proposed exchange of letters with Messrs. Playfair and Grant of the British Treasury. In the course of these discussions the British Treasury representatives (after first tentatively accepting the U.S. drafts as reported in Embassy’s cable No. 4943, dated September 12, 1947) suggested a revision of the letters, which instead of granting a further postponement of the convertibility obligations in relation to the 14 countries concerned, would have the effect of extending the August 20 action of suspending convertibility to these countries. The British also suggested that the letters should not be published, and that the exchange should take place between Mr. Grant and the Treasury Representative in London, rather than between Secretary Snyder and Chancellor Dalton.
These proposed alterations were taken up with the members of the NAC and were approved. Accordingly, the attached letters1 were exchanged between Mr. Grant and the Treasury Representative.
[Page 80]Copies of this despatch with attachments should be sent to the Treasury Department for appropriate action by the NAC Secretariat.
Respectfully yours,
U. S. Treasury Representative
- Not printed.↩