The International Monetary Conference.

The invitation conveyed to me as Minister for External Affairs
from the United States Government on 26th May [2] made it clear
that no proceedings of the then proposed International Monetary
Conference would be binding upon Governments but would in due
course be submitted to the Governments for approval or rejection.

On the basis of this we sent experts [3] to discuss all the
matters at the official level, instructing them to report to the
Government after the conference but so that the Government would
retain unfettered discretion to approve or reject. [4] We now find
that the procedure desired proposed is to obtain signatures of
officials or an intimation that the officials who sign are
recommending the adoption by all Governments of the proposals to
which they attach their signatures. [5] This procedure was not
followed at the Hot Springs Conference on food and agriculture and
is embarrassing. We would, therefore, suggest that you take up
with United States Government the advisability of not asking any
delegate to the conference to sign any document. Embarrassment
necessarily arises because some of the expert advisers are being
asked to recommend proposals when they are or may be opposed to
either the inclusion or the omission of certain matters. Further,
any Government whose experts sign under these conditions may be
placed in the position of publicly rejecting an apparent
recommendation from their experts when such a recommendation does
not truly express their opinions.

For your information I may add that on the short wave last night
it was reported that Morgenthau had stated that 44 Nations had
agreed to the Monetary Plan. It is this sort of statement which
creates embarrassment here because before any final decision is
made Parliament must be consulted.

It is desired that you make it perfectly clear that the Government
has not yet formulated any judgment upon the draft proposals. [6]
All it now desires to establish is the principle [that] the
proceedings should come up for consideration by the Governments
and Parliaments entirely free from the fetters of a recommendation
by officials. This is in keeping with the methods followed at Hot
Springs.

As suggested above please take up with Secretary of State so as to
obtain variation of proposed procedure.