Foreign Relations of the United States: Diplomatic Papers, 1944, The Near East, South Asia, and Africa, The Far East, Volume V

868.51 War Credit/789

The Ambassador in the United Kingdom (Winant) to the Secretary of State

No. 12,945

London, December 27, 1943.
[Received January 4, 1944.]

Sir: I have the honor to refer to the Embassy’s telegram No. 1497, March 28, 1942, and the Department’s reply thereto, No. 2251, May 19, 1942,⁷¹ concerning the contemplated abolition of the International Financial Commission at Athens by the Greek Government. There is enclosed a copy of a letter dated December 16, 1943, from the Foreign Office, together with a copy of a draft of a note from the Greek Government to the British Government⁷² in connection with this matter. This draft has not yet been shown to Mr. George Mantzavinos, Greek Under Secretary of State for Finance and Under Governor of the Bank of Greece, but it has been prepared on the basis of tentative ideas presented by him.

With respect to Paragraph 4 E of the draft, in which it is stated that the provisions set forth in the preceding sub-paragraphs⁷³ will apply mutatis mutandis to the inter-governmental payments due to be made in respect of the 1833 Three Powers Loan,⁷⁴ the Foreign Office letter states that the British Government is wondering if the United States Government does not wish explicit mention to be made of the United States Government Loan of 1929.⁷⁵ The Foreign Office requests the views of the United States Government on this point.

Respectfully yours,

For the Ambassador:

W. J. Gallman

First Secretary of Embassy

71. Ibid., pp. 795 and 796, respectively.
72. Neither printed.
73. According to these paragraphs, upon the projected abolition of the International Financial Commission, the Bank of Greece, under the explicit direction of the Greek Government, would establish various accounts in connection with the external loans and assume the functions of the Commission to assure their service.
74. Reference is to the Guaranteed Loan promised to the new Greek State by the Three Protecting Powers, Great Britain, France and Russia, in the London Protocol of February 20, 1830 (British and Foreign State Papers, vol. xvii, p. 203), the terms of which were spelled out in article XII of the Convention signed at London on May 7, 1832 (ibid., vol. xix, p. 33). In effect there were three loans or “instalments” (two in 1833 and one in 1836), each receiving the appropriate guarantee from the three Powers in separate diplomatic instruments and each the subject of a separate negotiation and contract between the Greek Government and private banking interests.
75. Provided for in the agreement between the United States and Greece signed at Washington on May 10, 1929, Annual Report of the Secretary of the Treasury … 1929, p. 308; for correspondence on this subject, see Foreign Relations, 1928, vol. iii, pp. 1 ff.