Coast Guard History
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Transcript of telephone conversation between Henry Morgenthau, Jr. [HMJr.], the Secretary of the Treasury and Cordell Hull [H], the Secretary of State, on June 6, 1939, regarding the SS St. Louis affair:
HMJr: Hello.
Operator: Secretary Hull.
HMJr: Thank you.
O: Go ahead.
Cordell
Hull: Hello.
HMJr: Cordell. . . . .
H: Yes, sir.
HMJr: How are you?
H: Good!
HMJr: I'm calling up again about this St. Louis, the German boat.
H: Yes.
HMJr: And my friends called me from New York and they said they were having some trouble, the Cubans were demanding cash.
H: Yes, they haven't been able to work out that question.
HMJr: Uh-huh.
H: Of course, the situation, you see, is that the -- the folks in New York don't want any money to get in the hands of the Cubans and the Cubans do.
HMJr: Yeah.
H: That's the problem -- that's the problem we've got.
HMJr: Well, are the people in New York right or wrong?
H: Well, it's a question. I -- of course, we would like to have it worked out that way. I'd like to see it worked out that way; if we -- if we can't get them to do it, I don't know -- then it's a question of some kind of compromise proposition, you see.
HMJr: Put up half cash and half. . . . . .
H: Well, something that way -- yes.
HMJr: I see.
H: Yes. That's the way it would seem.
HMJr: Uh-huh. They also tell me they don't know where the boat is.
H: Well, I -- of course, I take it that it won't get -- it won't get away far. I don't imagine so.
HMJr: Do you think it would be proper to have Coast Guard look for it?
H: For the boat? I don't see any reason, if they -- if they haven't found it, I don't see any reason why it couldn't.
HMJr: Yeah. Well, I thought -- I read in the papers that. . . . . .
H: You wouldn't have to put that in the newspapers.
HMJr: Oh, no. No, no. They would just -- oh, they might send a plane out to do patrol work.
H: Yes, yes, of course.
HMJr: There would be nothing in the papers.
H: No.
HMJr: No.
H: Oh, that would be all right.
HMJr: But you -- are they doing everything, you think, from New York, that they should?
H: So far as I have been able to see.
HMJr: I see.
H: My men -- I've talked with them two or three times today in here, and they are keeping in touch with the Government side and they are working down there. . . . . .
HMJr: Yeah.
H: . . . . . . with the -- with the man who represents the New York people.
HMJr: That's right.
H: I forget his name.
HMJr: Well -- well then, you haven't -- you haven't -- there's nothing that I could do, or that they should do?
H: Nothing I see right now. If I can find out anything I'll let you know in a half an hour or so.
HMJr: Thank you so much.
H: Yeah.
HMJr: Thank you.
H: Yeah.
HMJr: Good bye.