Attitude of the United States toward the desire of the Greek Government to abolish the International Financial Commission ⁶³

^63. Under the terms of the Agreement between the United States and Greece signed at Washington on May 10, 1929, the service of a United States loan of $12,167,000 was to be secured by the revenues under the control of the International Financial Commission. The text of the agreement is in the Annual Report of the Secretary of the Treasury on the State of the Finances for the Fiscal Year Ended June 30, 1929, p. 308; for correspondence on this subject, see Foreign Relations, 1928, vol. iii, pp. 1 ff.

[The origins of the regime of financial control existing in Greece are found in the Preliminaries of Peace between Turkey and Greece, signed at Constantinople on September 18, 1897 (British and Foreign State Papers, vol. 90, p. 546). Article II provided for an International Commission of the Representatives of the Mediating Powers (Great Britain, France, Russia, Germany, Italy, and Austria-Hungary) and required the Greek Government to enact legislation under which the Commission would be empowered to collect and utilize revenues sufficient to service the external debts of Greece. The Commission, which became known as the International Financial Commission, was established in 1898 pursuant to legislation passed by the Chamber of Deputies and sanctioned by the King (ibid., p. 403). Following World War I, Russia, Germany, and Austria-Hungary were eliminated from [Page 795] the Commission. The advent of World War II raised serious problems concerning the functioning of the Commission, particularly the conflict of interests between Great Britain and Vichy France after June 1940, the outbreak of war between Great Britain and Italy and between Greece and Italy, and the German invasion and occupation of Greece in April 1941, with a puppet regime at Athens and the legitimate royal government in exile.]