856.51/484
Memorandum of Conversation, by the Secretary of State
The Ambassador of the Netherlands, accompanied by the Finance Minister of that country, called at his request. The Ambassador said he had no business but merely called to say goodbye before leaving for a ten or twelve-day visit to London.
The Finance Minister proceeded to refer to the pending application of his Government for a loan of $300,000,000 from our Government chiefly for post-war expenditures. I inquired if any purchases during the period of the war would or might interfere with the war needs of this country or the United Nations. He said that it would not since the purpose was to use the funds to place orders with many war plants in this country for products to be manufactured just as [Page 461] soon as the war ends and that, therefore, it was important for his Government to have credits in this country ready for use without a day’s delay. He stated that this would strengthen the general financial standing of the Netherlands. I expressed my appreciation of the desire of his country to begin rehabilitation and reconstruction just as promptly and effectively as possible. I added that I would be glad to talk with Mr. Jones and any other interested officials.
I inquired of the Finance Minister as to how the formal conversations on monetary subjects are progressing. He replied that a new draft of the stabilization plan had been prepared. He then proceeded to emphasize the view that it would be wiser to move gradually and develop on an ever-broadening scale the whole monetary and economic structure rather than to begin on too broad a scale, which might prove too cumbersome and too unwieldy for governments to sustain without serious risk of collapse and which would possibly delay everything in this line for twenty-five or thirty years.