-2- aims of the United States toward peace. He expressed the hope that the United States would not let slip the opportunity which he says is now ours, particularly the President's, to take the lead in solving the outstanding questions of Europe, and primarily Germants problems. The idea of a Washington conference was mentioned by Schacht; I asked him why in Washington, and he replied that the United States has now the world's leadership and the wealth to make it effective so that other nations should be called to Washington for conference and discussion. I asked Schacht whether he had been told the scheme which had been suggested to me that day by one of my earnest Central Bank friends; i.e., for Germany to borrow from the United States to buy neutral territory from England and for the latter to apply the proceeds of the sale upon British war debt to us. This suggestion was made by Yanagita (Japan). The reply of Schacht was that he was not suggesting the measures that should be taken; however, he hopes that we would take advantage of Runciman's visit and that of another distinguished Britisher - Niemeyer, I assume- to indicate to the British that we are interested in a final and happy liquidation of the problems facing Germany. Schacht's Basel representative, Heschler, told me that |