740.00119 European War 1939/122
Memorandum by the Assistant Secretary of State (Messersmith) to the Chief of the Division of European Affairs (Moffat)
Mr. Moffat: I discussed the appended telegram, No. 1954 from Berlin,2 with the Secretary and the Under Secretary who were in agreement with my view, and which I understand is yours, that no reply or acknowledgment should be made to Berlin of the appended telegram. I pointed out that Dr. Schacht had some months ago been in touch with Mr. Burgess of the National City Bank and that Dr. Schacht had at that time been invited to make an address before the Academy of Political Sciences. This was abandoned. I stated that in my opinion this move of Dr. Schacht was not the independent move which he made it appear to be and that there was a good deal of probability that he was acting in fact with the full knowledge and approval of the German Government. I said there was at least reasonable ground to believe, keeping in mind other information which we have, that this move of Dr. Schacht was a part of the general effort of the German Government to establish contact with other governments through unofficial agents who appeared to be acting entirely independently of the German Government and in fact in some ways in opposition to it.
I said that there were some people in this and in other countries who persisted in believing that Dr. Schacht was a man who could be depended upon to act honestly and uprightly. There was, therefore, a certain danger involved in this approach to Mr. Fraser in the sense that we were not sure that such people might not feel that a really useful purpose might be served in having Dr. Schacht come here to make an address such as he suggests. The Secretary and the Under Secretary were in agreement that if we were in any way approached by Mr. Fraser or others in a similar position in this matter we would state that there was no more objection to Dr. Schacht coming here to make a non-political address than there was to anyone else coming. On the other hand, those who would in any way arrange such an opportunity for Dr. Schacht must understand that they must do it entirely on their own, that there could be no official sponsorship even of the most indirect character, and that certainly no official contacts, such as he has in mind, could be arranged.