-2- 1309, April 3, 1941, 9 p.m. (SECTION TW0) from London and war srrvicrs and thr decline in the export trade. War strategy has been so closely related in these last few weeks to allied situations in the Balkans and elsewhere that some flexibility of action in the field of foreign exchange was necessary. It occurred to me that such situations will repeat themselves and other special British situations will arise in which it might be simpler as well as of advantage for a country at war to be able to meet financial contin- gencies rapidly and from its own coffers. In the present circumstances shortage of funds might not only weaken England as a first line of defense but be a sufficient threat to prompt us to find the money to meet a special situation that would be hard to explain to Congress in the time which the emergency allowed and might be particularly embarrassing to handle without Congressional action with the Johnson Act on the statute book. I just do not want you to have to face that sort of headache. These, I realize, are properly Treasury matters and we are handicapped for the moment by the absence of anyone who is kept currently informed of the financial conversations at Washington. I understand from a Department cable that this situation is being given attention. WINANT NPL |