DES This telegram must be closely paraphrased be- LONDON fore beng communicated to anyone. (D) Dated April 3, 1941 Rec'd 6:25 p.m. Secretary of State, Washington. RUSH. 1309, April 3, 9 p.m. (SECTI0N TWO). Two. FINANCIAL AND ECON0MIC MATTERS. After the Lend-Lease Bill had been passed the question of taking over the British commitments in America with particular emphasis on the resulting credit balances avail- able to the British Treasury was taken up with me by both the Prime Minister and the Chancellor of the Exchequer. I reported these conversations in my cable no. 1060, March 18, 8 p.m. forwarded to you and the Secretary of the Treasury which included a letter of Under Secretary Waley addressed to Ben Cohen summarizing the situation from the British point of view. I merely reported the deep concern expressed here without recommendations, and the matter has not since been brought up by either the Prime Minister or the Chancellor. The problem, however, will probably recur as you cannot live here and not be aware of the growing reduction of national income due to a contraction of normal business, the transfer of the energies of the people to war production and |