740.00112 European War 1939/8268: Telegram
The Secretary of State to the Minister in Switzerland (Harrison)20
Washington, May 14,
1943—noon.
1154. Your 2722, May 3; 2788, May 6; 2839, May 8,21 and Department’s 1089, May 6; Department’s 978, April 27.
- 1.
- Since Swiss-German negotiations have now been resumed in Bern, Department, Board of Economic Warfare and the British believe immediate action should be taken and unless you have strong objections, you are requested to present the note contained in Department’s 1089 of May 6 as revised herein as soon as your British colleague is authorized to present a similar one or advises you that a similar communication will be presented to the Swiss Minister in London.
- 2.
- The note as revised follows:
[Here follows revised note; it differs only in that it refers to Swiss course of action “reviving credits under the 1941 agreement” rather than “liquidating the 1941 agreement”.]
- 3.
- The oral statements accompanying the note remain the same as those contained in Department’s 978 of April 27 except that you should impress upon the Swiss that we are most interested (a) that there will be an adequate and effective restriction on the total volume of their undesirable exports resulting in an immediate reduction no matter what formula is used by the Swiss. It is a matter of indifference to us whether this result is achieved by including the exports under the extended 1941 agreement within the lower quotas proposed for the new agreement or by making the quotas in the new agreement so low as to achieve an immediate total reduction in undesirable exports, and (b) that no new credits will be granted by the Swiss to Germany whether based on coal deliveries or not.
- 4.
- If you have strong objections to the course suggested, please telegraph urgently giving full reasons.
Hull