File No. 861.51/255
The Secretary of State to the French Ambassador (Jusserand)
Excellency: In reply to your excellency’s note of December 20, 1917,1 I am informed by the Secretary of the Treasury that there are in bank in this country certain sums out of which the Russian representatives contemplate paying the interest on certain obligations held here and to which no objection will be made by this Government. The greater portion of such payments is for interest maturing January 1, 1918, while a few extend to May 1, 1918.
Other than acquiescing in these proposed payments, the Government of the United States contemplates no action in regard to the service of Russian loans all of which I understand were placed in our markets before the United States entered the war and without any intervention on the part of the United States Government.
The Secretary of the Treasury will not fail to convey to American banks the decision of your excellency’s Government prohibiting the importation into France after January 1, 1918, of coupons and obligations of Russia.
Accept [etc.]
- Not printed.↩