White House Press Release, Message from President Harry S. Truman to the United States Congress

HOLD FOR RELEASE HOLD FOR RELEASE HOLD FOR RELEASE January 30, 1946 CONFIDENTIAL: The following message to the Congress must be held in STRICT CONFIDENCE and no portion, synopsis or intimation is to be given out or published until reading of the message has begun in either the Senate or the House of Representatives, probably about 12 o'clock NOON, TODAY, WEDNESDAY, January 30, 1946. The same release applies to redio commentators and news broadcasters. CAUTION: Extreme care should be exercised to prevent premature publication. CHARLES G. ROSS Secretary to the President TO THE CONGRESS OF THE UNITED STATES: NARA The establishment 0.0 a permanent state of peace and prosperity is not a simple matter. The creation and maintenance of conditions under which nations can be prosperous and remain peaceful involves a series of highly complex and difficult problems. If we are to reach this greatly desired goal, we must be prepared at all times to face the issues that will constantly present themselves and we must be determined to solve them. If peace is to be permanent, we must never re- lax our efforts to make it so. In his message to the Congress recommending the approval of the Bretton Woods Agreements, President Roosevelt called these proposals "the cornerstone for international economic cooperation. By enacting the Bretton Woods Agreements Act, the 79th Congress laid this cornerstone for the construction of an orderly economic peace. The Congress took many others steps during the same session which enlarged the structure, and its achievements in this field are just cause for pride. Among the most important of these other steps were the ratification and implementation of the treaty establishing the United Nations Organization, the enact- ment of legislation to support the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization and to carry on the operations of the United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration, the extension in a broader form of the Reciprocal Trade Agreements Act, and the expansion of the Export-Import Bank, These steps will take us a long way on the road to world-wide security and prosperity. They should not make us blind, however, to the job that has not been done - to the work that lies ahead. In approving the establishment of the International Monetary Fund and the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development, the Congress specifically expressed its belief that additional measures for international economic cooperation would be necessary to render most effective the operations of the Fund and Bank. In the Bretton Woods Agreements Act the Congress declared it to be the policy of the United States to seek to bring about further international agreement and cooperation along these lines. The International Monetary Fund Agreement was drafted and the Bretton Woods Agreements Act was enacted during the war. Both recognized that the financial condition of some countries resulting from the war might make it impossible for them to apply at once the fundamental rule of non-discrimination in their monetary and financial transactions. Therefore, provision was made for a transition period which might postpone as long as fivo years the complete application of this fundamental rule. (OVER)