Office of the Historian

868.50 Porter/12–2145

The British Minister (Makins) to Mr. Samuel Reber of the Office of European Affairs

Washington, December 21, 1945.

My Dear Sam: We have received an urgent telegram from the Foreign Office enquiring whether the State Department are now able [Page 296] to give us their reply to the questions raised in the Embassy’s memorandum of December 3rd about the proposed economic mission to Greece, and in the memorandum enclosed with my letter of December 5th.56

The Foreign Office have received a further appeal from the Greek Government through the Greek Embassy in London for the immediate grant of Allied aid in view of the continued depreciation of the drachma. The Greek Embassy have been told that the Foreign Office must await the report of the British experts who have just arrived in Greece and that His Majesty’s Government consider that the main responsibility for restoring economic and financial stability must rest with the Greek Government. The Foreign Office feel that they cannot go further than this until they have learned your Government’s views on the Embassy’s two memoranda.

I should be grateful, therefore, if you could let us have your views as soon as possible.57

Yours ever,

Roger Makins
  1. Letter not printed; for memorandum, see p. 277.↩
  2. In a memorandum of January 10, 1946, William O. Baxter of the Division of Near Eastern Affairs reviewed the Greek economic and financial situation for the period November 2, 1945, to January 10, 1946, and stated: “Throughout this procedure neither the British nor the Greek Ambassador have received any official replies to their urgent requests for our views. If I had not informally indicated the trend of our thinking, they would still be in the dark. Also, our representatives in London have been taking part in conversations for the better part of two weeks without any advice from Washington or an inkling of our thinking here—unless Brit. Foreign Office have told them what I’ve told the Brit. Embassy here.” (868.51/1–1046) With regard to conversations of American representatives at London, see telegram 11089, December 27, 7 p.m., infra.↩