Cooperation of the United States with the Allied Powers in the Provision and Administration of Finance and in the Purchase of Supplies 1
1. The papers printed in this section do not purport to give a complete account of financial transactions between the United States and the Allied powers, a subject not suitable for full development in these volumes. On the other hand, the total omission of this subject would exclude an important factor in the general process of the organization of cooperation with the Allied powers, culminating in the Inter-Allied Conference of November-December, 1917. The principle governing the selection of these documents is that of showing the problems of financial cooperation, the efforts made toward solving them, and the evolution of the machinery for coordinating financial policy which resulted in the formation of the Purchasing Commission and the Inter-Allied Council on War Purchases and Finance. Papers relating to financial assistance to Rumania are included in a separate section, post, page 721. Those relating to loans to Russia are printed in Foreign Relations, 1918, Russia, Vol. III.
Contents
- Suggestions as to financial aid by the British and Italian
Governments—Offer of credit to France, April 5—Requests of the British,
French, Italian, and Belgian Governments for loans under the Act of
Congress approved April 24—The first advances (Documents 422–440)
- British representations as to the inadequacy of sums provided—The
question of taking up the “Morgan overdraft”—Replies to British
representations (Documents 441–453)
- Proposal of the Secretary of the Treasury, transmitted July 19, for an
Inter-Allied Council on War Purchases and Finance and for an American
Purchasing Commission—British memorandum, transmitted July 20, in
justification of requests for increased assistance—Reply of the Allied
Governments, July 26, to the proposal for an Inter-Allied Council and a
Purchasing Commission (Documents 454–463)
- Reply of the Secretary of the Treasury, August 14, to the British
memorandum on increased assistance, urging coordination of
requirements—Constitution of the Purchasing Commission—Agreement of the
British and French Governments, August 31, to the constitution of the
Inter-Allied Council—The question of the Greek loan as a factor in
hastening coordination (Documents 464–473)
- The appointment of delegates to the Inter-Allied Council—Financial
negotiations at Paris and London through the American delegate,
Crosby—French
project of separate councils for supplies and finance—Organization of a
single Inter-Allied Council at London, December 13 (Documents 474–500)