825.5151/132½: Telegram
The Acting Secretary of State to the Ambassador in Chile (Sevier)
10. Your telegram No. 3, January 9, 5 p.m. Does the Chilean proposal mean that the Exchange Control Commission will continue to allot to American interests the same share of available exchange as heretofore and that, in addition, persons desiring to remit funds to the United States will have legal access to other sources of exchange such as the bootleg market? The point of particular importance is whether persons desiring to make remittances to the United States would receive treatment no more unfavorable, at the hands of the Exchange Control Commission, than they have received in the past. Would the Chilean proposal include assurances on this point?
As we see it at present, the Chilean proposal offers merely that in addition to what they now receive from the Exchange Control Commission, persons desiring to remit funds to the United States would have (1) legal access to bootleg market, (2) right to use exchange obtained therein for any purpose desired, that is, for frozen credits or other transfers.
[Page 4]You may say to the Chilean authorities that this Government is not yet in a position either to reject or accept the proposal, but that it will be given sympathetic consideration if formulated in precise language.
Has a similar proposal been made to the British Embassy and, if so, have you any information as to the attitude of the British Government thereto?