File No. No. 763.72112/6708
The Secretary of the Treasury ( McAdoo) to the Secretary of State
[Received February 4.]
My Dear Mr. Secretary: I take the liberty of referring to your letter of November 23, in which you enclose copy of a memorandum from the British Embassy embodying a summary of telegraphic instructions sent to the British Minister at Rio de Janeiro in regard to the desirability of adopting certain methods connected with the financial blockade of Germany and Austria-Hungary.2 At the time when your letter was received, no steps had been taken here for the [Page 346] control of financial operations, and I therefore suggested that action be postponed in Brazil until we should have acted here.
The President has now signed an Executive order, dated January 26, of which I enclose herewith a copy,1 and this order, taken together with the general provisions of the Trading with the Enemy Act appointing an Alien Property Custodian, seems to cover practically all the points which the British Government was desirous of bringing to the attention of the Brazilian Government, except subdivision (b) of paragraph 4. This, however, is not, in my judgment, an important variation.
I think it desirable, if you approve, that this Government should either join the British Government in making representations to Brazil, or else that the American Ambassador at Rio de Janeiro should of his own motion bring to the attention of the Brazilian Government the steps that have been taken by the United States for the control of credit operations within its borders.
By direction of the Secretary,
Very truly yours,