FOREIGN RELATIONS, 19 5 0, VOLUME I


  On March 31, President Truman designated the Honorable Gordon
Gray to-be Special Assistant to the President, to undertake the task
of advising the President on developing measures to meet the balance-
of-payments problem (letter, President Truman to Gordon Gray,
March 31, 1950, released at Key West, Florida, April 3). The Depart-
ment of State understanding of Mr. Gray's mission was described in
an informal memorandum as follows:
  "Mr. Gordon Gray has been designated Special Assistant to the
President to assist the President in mobilizing and coordinating staff
work within the various agencies of the Government looking toward
a careful analysis of the various factors bearing on the present dis-
parity between exports and imports.
  "The President hopes that, out of these studies and a full public
discussion of the issues they reveal, there will be developed, along
bipartisan principles, the policies and programs which seem most
likely to offer solutions to this urgent problem." (Informal Manage-
ment Staff memorandum of about March 29, Lot 122, Box 15559,
"DDG Working Papers")


Department of State Committee Files, Lot 122, Box 15559
Statement of the History and Work of the Departmental Dollar Gap
                     Working Group (DDG)

                                [WASHINGTON,] November 20, 1950.
   Established: March 2, 1950 by notification memo from E, A and
 S/S.
   Chairman: Assistant Secretary Thorp (E).
   Areas Represented: E, ITP, OFD, TRC, TCA, EUR, FE, ARA,
 NEA, GER, UNA, P, H, R, L, A.2
   Terms of Reference: "To consider and prepare State Department
 positions concerning the over-all question of adjusting the balance of
 payments of the United States."
   Secretariat: S/S-S.
   Activity: Held approximately 10 meetings since March 2; now
 inactive.
   Description of Work: The DDG was originally established to
 backstop State's participants in the interdepartmental machinery
 which Mr. Gray was expected to set up -to work on his "dollar gap"
 report to the President. Mr. Gray, however, set up no such machinery

   "This statement was presumably prepared in the Executive Secretariat
of the
 Department of State.
   2The last seven offices designated here were not part of the regular member-
 ship of the DDG. They received all documentation and notices of meetings
and
 attended meetings where matters of importance to their offices were discussed.


842