File No. 763.72/6128
The British Ambassador ( Spring Rice) to the Secretary of State
[A copy of the following note from the British Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs to the British Ambassador was left at the Department by the Ambassador.]
(W. 125449/17)
[Received July 24.]
Sir: In my conversation yesterday with Mr. Page, I begged him to bring unofficially to the notice of the President the importance of American representation on Allied conferences. America was already, in the sphere of production and finance, the most important of the Allied powers; in the naval and military sphere, her importance was steadily growing. President Wilson was deeply interested, not merely in the conduct of the war, but in the arrangements to be made at its conclusion, and he would certainly claim to be represented when important Allied interests were under discussion. But how this representation was to be satisfactorily effected was by no means clear. There was no one in America exactly corresponding to a British, French or Italian Prime Minister; the President, who in a sense combined the duties both of King and Prime Minister, could not leave the country: and no head of department could be spared under ordinary conditions to cross the ocean and even if he could be spared he could only imperfectly represent the President’s views. The difficulty arising out of distance had already made itself felt in the case of Russia. Plainly it existed quite as much, in the case of America, and it seemed to be of great importance that the President should consider how it would best be got over.
Mr. Page promised to write confidentially to the President upon this subject.
I am [etc.]