763.72112/1851½
President Wilson to the Secretary of State
My Dear Mr. Secretary: I am returning the note to Great Britain. I have made a few verbal changes, but they do not alter the substance at all, as I think you will agree.
I hope that you will send it by post. It is very important that there should be no leakage at all as to its contents. I hope that you will be kind enough to keep your own eye on the whole handling of the note so as to render a leak impossible, confining the copying, sealing, and mailing to the fewest possible persons, and those only the ones that are in your most intimate confidence. When it has reached the Foreign Office we can publish it as a whole.
Any leakage, or any publication of a garbled version, as happened once before, would create a very disagreeable situation. I would suggest that you let no one know that the note had been sent until Page lets you know by cable that it has arrived and been delivered.
Faithfully Yours,