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Statement by the President Upon Appointing the Committee for Financing Foreign Trade.
June 26, 1946

I HAVE APPOINTED a committee of industrialists and bankers to make a report and recommendation on the financing of international reconstruction. They will work closely with the National Advisory Council, which has the duty of formulating our national policy on foreign lending.

I have appointed this committee of citizens of knowledge and experience because our foreign trade, export and import, must in the long run be privately handled and privately financed if it is to serve well this country and world economy.

It is true that for the immediate present governmental help is needed in order to get our foreign trade under way. But I am anxious that there shall be the fullest cooperation between the governmental agencies and private industry and finance. Our common aim is the return of our foreign commerce and investments to private channels as soon as possible.

The committee which I have appointed is as follows: Mr. Herbert H. Pease, President, New Britain Machine Co., New Britain, Conn.; Mr. Champ Carry, President, Pullman-Standard Car Manufacturing Corp., Chicago, Ill.; Mr. Walter J. Cummings, Chairman, Continental-Illinois National Bank and Trust Co., Chicago, Ill.; Mr. L. M. Giannini, President, Bank of America, San Francisco, Calif.; Mr. Paul G. Hoffman, President, Studebaker Corp., South Bend, Ind.; Mr. Edward Hopkinson, Jr., Partner, Drexel and Co., Philadelphia, Pa.; Mr. Fowler McCormick, Chairman, International Harvester Co., Chicago, Ill.; Mr. Irving S. Olds, Chairman, U.S. Steel Corp., New York, N.Y.; Mr. Gordon S. Rentschler, Chairman, National City Bank of New York, New York, N.Y.; Mr. A. W. Robertson, Chairman, Westinghouse Electric Corp., Pittsburgh, Pa.; Mr. Winthrop W. Aldrich, Chairman, The Chase National Bank of the City of New York, New York, N.Y.; Mr. Tom K. Smith, President, The Boatmen’s National Bank of St. Louis, St. Louis, Mo.

NOTE: A statement by the Chairman, Winthrop W. Aldrich, concerning the functions of the Committee, was released by the White House on July 9. Mr. Aldrich reported that the President, in his letter appointing the Committee, stated that it was of vital importance to the country and to the stabilization of the international economy to tie in the national productive capacity with the world’s reconstruction requirements as rapidly as possible, and that the conduct and financing of U.S. foreign trade should be handled by private industry with the cooperation and assistance of the proper Government agencies.