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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