875.6363/75: Telegram
The Secretary of State to the Minister in Albania (Grant-Smith)
17. A request has been made by the National City Bank of New York that the Department cable to you for communication to the [Page 383] appropriate member of the Cabinet in collaboration with Mr. E. S. Sheffield the following:6
“The National City Bank of New York guarantees that E. S. Sheffield, in his legal capacity as representative of The Standard Oil Company of New York, is financially competent to undertake the development of from twenty to thirty mining claims of an area of fifteen hundred hectares each for which he may submit petitions and which may be granted in his name.”
This message may be communicated to Sheffield. It would not be appropriate for you to take action which might be deemed to constitute governmental guarantee of any private organization or undertaking but there would be no objection to your bringing the above message to the attention of the appropriate Albanian authorities as one which had been received from the National City Bank of New York, a reputable and responsible American banking institution.
- Quotation not paraphrased.↩