Letter regarding Greece"s unsettled debts to England.

Athens, December 15, 1924. My dear Sir Otto, Please accept my warm thanks for your very instructive letter No 240/2 of November 10, 1924. Some of the documents you mention therein were unknown to me. Our internal troubles in Greece during the past few years have no doubt contributed to a certain amount of disorder in our archives. Your above letter I have filed at the Ministry of Finance and have handed a copy thereof to His Excellency the Prime Minister. No Greek Government has entertained the thought of denying the existence of the indebtedness of the Republic to your country for war material. Perhaps the formal recognition of such indebtedness, for reasons of accounting was confused with the substance of the matter, that is, the question of payment. Hence probably the delays and hesitations. Now by your letter these two stages have been clearly differentiated, inasmuch as you state : (a) that in your request for the issue and deposit of Treasury Bills there was no intention on your part of determining and discussing the modalities of payment by the Greek Government, but that you merely sought to come to an agreement with the Greek Government as to the existence of the indebtedness and the accuracy of your claims. (b) that the modalities of payment would be discussed in connection with the general question of the settlement of war debts.