Office of the Historian

550.S1/475: Telegram

The Consul at Geneva (Gilbert) to the Secretary of State

Geneva, January 20, 1933—noon.
[Received January 20—10:35 a.m.]

11. 1. Department’s 58, January 19, 5 p.m. to Wilson repeated to Day and Williams steamship Leviathan together with this reply.

2. The report of the experts8 embodying annotated agenda for the Monetary and Economic Conference stresses in its introduction after the quotation in Sackett’s telegram on international debts (this Consulate’s No. 10, January 20, 10 a.m.) four points essential to the success of the Conference on which it urges not only concerted action at the Conference but preliminary negotiations by participating governments. These four points are as follows:

(a)
The restoration of an effective international monetary standard to which countries off gold can adhere. This should include safeguards against restoration to gold standard leading to a fresh breakdown and recognizes that many conditions, economic and financial, must be satisfied before a return to international gold standard is practicable.
(b)
The necessity for arranging increases in the level of world commodity prices through regulation of exports or production with special emphasis laid on wheat. Also recommends the “easing” of credit in order to counteract the fall in prices.
(c)
The abolition of exchange control through the stabilizing of governmental budgets and economic systems including recommendations for governmental assistance respecting short term and long term foreign debts as essential to restoring confidence in foreign lending markets. It visualizes also the organization of some means to put present immobilized resources into active circulation and to create a stabilized credit for the purpose of restoring free exchanges which are necessary for financial recovery and resumption of the normal flow of international credit.
(d)
Recommendations for governmental efforts to provide greater freedom for international trade through a general agreement for progressive relaxation of emergency restrictions and the necessity for a moderation and stabilization of tariffs and tariff policies in the future. It draws the conclusion that the great creditor nations have a special responsibility in this respect.

The balance of the report is the annotated agenda on the points covered in this Consulate’s No. 9, January 19, 10 a.m. [p.m.], from Day and Williams with the addition of a further section of the agenda dealing with the organization of production and trade.

3. Should summarization in further detail of any points be desired please instruct.

4. Sackett concurs.

Gilbert
  1. League of Nations, Monetary and Economic Conference, Draft Annotated Agenda (Official No.: C.48.M.18.1933.II [Conf. M.E.I.]).↩