OMD Chronological Files

4523

1974-1977

series

1 linear foot of textual records

Andrew Crockett, Richard G. Ware, David Green

Chronological files contain carbon copies of Managing Director H. Johannes Witteveen's outgoing correspondence and internal memoranda. Addressees include the Deputy Managing Director, Secretary, Treasurer and other Department Heads, Executive Directors, governors of central banks, ministers of finance and other government officials, the Chairman of the newly established Interim Committee and heads of commercial banks. A large amount of correspondence concerns schedules, meetings and travel arrangements, invitations or gifts. Chronological files contain records of meetings (with Department Heads, G-10, country authorities, bankers) as well as work programs, points for discussions, speeches and occasional Managing Director's comments or briefings on papers prepared by the staff on particular subjects. These internal memoranda together with sometimes lengthy personal letters to Executive Directors, government officials and bankers cover all the measures taken by the IMF in response to the economic problems of the 1970's and illustrate the way Managing Director Witteveen conducted business in particular with regard to the negotiation of the Second Amendment to the Articles of Agreements, the handling of exchange rates surveillance, the review of quotas, the establishment of and contributions to the 1974 and 1975 Oil Facilities, the arrangements for gold auctions and distribution to developing countries and the development of a new Supplementary Financial Facility. Chronological files also document thoroughly the negotiation with the UK for the use of the resources of the IMF., Chronological files contain some of Personal Assistant David Green's private correspondence including exchanges with the Bank of London on his position to the IMF. Also includes a log of outgoing correspondence that covers the period of Pierre-Paul Schweitzer but ends with H. Johannes Witteveen's time as Managing Director (1971-1975)., Chronological correspondence differs from the Correspondence series in that the chronological files are arranged by date, and the Correspondence series is arranged alphabetically by correspondent or subject, and often will include incoming and outgoing correspondence, whereas Chronological will, for the most part, contain only outgoing correspondence.