860c.516/134

The Secretary of Commerce (Hoover) to the Secretary of State

Dear Mr. Secretary: I understand you are inquiring for information with regard to the Polish exchange agreement with the Guaranty Trust Company.

My impression is that this agreement is advantageous both to the Polish residents in the United States and to the people of Poland. Its primary object was to secure that Polish remittances from the United States to relatives in Poland were placed in such position that they could be interpreted into dollar purchases in the United States.

Prior to this agreement remittances to Poland were made through many hundred different agencies, many of them corrupt, and a great bulk of the money found its way through Scandinavian, Dutch, French, Swiss and other banks into Poland. The economic result of the former method of remittance was that the Poles in Poland obtained a call upon these intermediary countries for commodities and not directly upon the United States, the dollar purchasing power having been left in the hands of the intermediary bank. If the Polish Government possessed credit in the United States this might not matter but as it stands this is practically their only dollar resource.

Under the present plan the Polish Government expends accumulated remittances in purchasing American commodities, transports these commodities to Poland, sells them to the population, takes the money received and meets the remittances. It has and will enable the Polish Government to meet many of its requirements in the United States that could not otherwise be accomplished.

All together it is my feeling that the arrangement is an advantageous one, in fact such an arrangement was advised by me as vitally necessary as early as March 1919 although of course I made no suggestion as to any special bank.

Yours faithfully,

Herbert Hoover