Special Message to the Congress Transmitting an Amendment to the Anglo- American Financial Agreement of 1945.

To the Congress of the United States:

I send you herewith an amendment to the Anglo-American Financial Agreement of 1945 signed for the United States by the Secretary of the Treasury and for the United Kingdom by the British Ambassador. Your approval is recommended and requested.

Under the terms of the 1945 Agreement, the United Kingdom is entitled to waiver, that is, cancellation, of interest payments under certain rather elaborately defined conditions. Over the years, and with changing circumstances, it has become practically impossible to apply this important feature of the Agreement.

This last December, the British claimed a waiver of the interest for 1956 and set the sum involved aside pending consultation. Up to that time, they had made in full every payment of principal and interest called for by the Agreement.

The amendment gives the United Kingdom a right to postpone not more than seven annual installments of principal and interest when it finds such action necessary in view of present and prospective conditions of international exchange and the level of the United Kingdom's gold and foreign exchange reserves. In addition, the 1956 installment of interest would be postponed. In exchange for this, the United Kingdom foregoes any right to claim a waiver or cancellation of interest payments and agrees to pay interest annually on the full amount of all postponed installments.

The amendment to the Agreement is a common sense solution which attempts to carry out the spirit of the Agreement in a way that is practical and fair to both parties.

I recommend that the Congress enact legislation approving the action of the Secretary of the Treasury in signing the amendatory Agreement on behalf of the United States.

DWIGHT D. EISENHOWER