Editorial Note

On April 15 Yemen officially requested a loan from the Export-Import Bank to finance construction of a port at Hodeida and a road from Hodeida to the capital at San’a. The Chairman of the Board of the Bank informed officers of the Department of State that the Bank was reluctant to make a loan to Yemen because of a requirement that loans had to be closely related to the ability to repay in dollars. Telegram 148, October 31, from Washington to Jidda, informed the Embassy that the Export-Import Bank was not prepared to consider an application from the Kingdom of Yemen at that time because of a lack of technical and economic surveys of the characteristics of the economy of Yemen, and studies of the repayment prospects of the loan. (886H.10/10–3150) Information on this topic is in Department of State files 103–XMB, 886H.10, and 886H.2612.

On June 11 the Foreign Minister of Yemen wrote to Childs to request aid for Yemen under the Point IV Program. He listed technical assistance in agriculture and health as two important fields in which the country needed help. A reply from the Embassy, dated July 31, explained that Congress had approved the Point IV Program but had not yet voted funds for it. Copies of the two notes were transmitted to the Department of State as enclosures to despatch 3, Yemen [Page 1361] series, August 2, from Jidda. (886H.00–TA/8–250) In despatch 10, Yemen series, October 14, from Jidda, Charge Hill enclosed a copy of the Embassy’s note of September 28 to the Foreign Minister of Yemen. He informed Abdullah that the President had signed the appropriation bill for the Point IV Technical Assistance Program for the fiscal year 1951 and explained the procedure for Yemen to use in requesting aid. (886H.00–TA/10–1450)

The Point IV allocation for Yemen for fiscal year 1951 was $50,000, but the amount could not be allocated until an agreement between the two countries was signed. The Department of State sent a draft of a Point IV Agreement between the United States and Yemen for use by the Officer in Charge in negotiating an agreement with the Government of Yemen, to the Embassy at Jidda, attached to instruction number 18, dated November 2. The original draft was then revised during discussions from December 4 to December 7 between members; of the Yemeni Delegation to the United Nations and officers of the Department of State in Washington and sent to the American Consulate in Aden in an unnumbered instruction dated December 26. Despatch 108, February 10, 1951, from Aden, contains an account of a visit to Yemen from December 11, 1950, to January 9, 1951, by L. Pittman Springs, American Consul in Aden, to initiate negotiations on a technical cooperation agreement. (886H.00–TA/2–1051) The negotiations were not concluded at that time, and further details will appear in a forthcoming volume of Foreign Relations. Information on this topic is in Department of State files 786H.00, 886H.00, and 886H.00–TA and the McGhee files, lot 53D468.