Editorial Note

Dwight P. Griswold, Chief of the American Mission for Aid to Greece, outlined on January 5 to Prime Minister Themistocles Sophoulis and Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Foreign Affairs Constantine Tsaldaris, proposed increases in American military aid to Greece and the conditions attached thereto (telegram Amag 32, January 6, 6 p. m., 868.20/1–648). The offer of the increases was made pursuant to authorization by the Department of State in telegram Gama 718, December 30, 1947, to the Mission, Foreign Relations, 1947, volume V, page 478.

Mr. Griswold, a former Governor of Nebraska, on January 7 sent to the two Greek leaders a memorandum of his oral statement of January 5, a copy of which he transmitted to the Department in despatch Amag 100 the same day (868.00/1–748).

The Greek Prime Minister replied to Governor Griswold’s memorandum in an aide-mémoire of January 12. He set forth his Government’s full acceptance of the program spelled out in the memorandum, save for one minor exception. He warned, however, that the economic measures to which the Greek Government was committed would not yield the desired results unless a relative stability were maintained between the gold sovereign and the drachma, pending effective results from the economic reforms, and unless drachmae were obtained to meet military expenditures and costs of caring for refugees. As to the former, he requested immediate release and conversion into sovereigns of Greek gold held by the Federal Reserve Bank of New York as security for a loan (telegram Amag 75, January 13, 6 p. m., 868.00/1–1348.