File No. 763.72/7534
The British Ambassador ( Spring Rice) to the Counselor for the Department of State ( Polk)
My Dear Mr. Counsellor: I beg to acknowledge the receipt of your note of the 16th instant in which you inform me, at the request of the Acting Secretary of the Treasury, that the delegate of the United States to attend the Inter-Allied Council in London will be designated in the near future by, or with the approval of, the President.
I am in receipt of a telegram from the Foreign Office, which expresses the gratification which His Majesty’s Government feel at this proposed step, and which instructs me to request that your Government will consent to the United States delegate acting as chairman of this council. I understand that the French, Italian and Russian Ambassadors here are putting forward a similar request on behalf of their respective Governments.
I am also in receipt of a later telegram from London, to the effect that the British delegates on this council have been nominated, as follows: Lord Buckmaster, Mr. Austen Chamberlain, and General Smuts, [Page 574] and my Government would accordingly be glad to learn the name of the proposed United States delegate at as early a date as is conveniently possible.
Believe me [etc.]