Office of the Historian

File No. 600.001/185

Protocol of December 17, 1917, Added to the Agreement of June 9, 1917, Relative to Silks and Silk Goods1

[Translation]

The delegates of the American, British, French and Italian Governments met in Paris in order to determine the putting into force of the agreement of June 9, 1917, relative to silks and silk goods:

1. They took note of the subsequent decision of the Italian Government to participate in the operation provided for in Article II of the above-mentioned agreement by making payment of a quota equal to that of the other Allied Governments who signed the agreement.

The quotas to be paid, the expenses and risks of the operation will thus be divided into four parts and no longer into three parts between the interested states.

2. They also took note of the fact that as a consequence of the negotiations conducted between the French and Italian Governments and the intervention of technical delegates from both parties, [Page 1198] it had been admitted that the organization and working of the inter-Allied purchase bureau provided for in Articles II, IX and X of the agreement of June 9, 1917, would be realized in accordance with the provisions of the regulation added to the present protocol.1

3. In accordance with the provisions of Article IX of the agreement of June 9, 1917, the American, British, French and Italian Governments will designate as soon as possible, and in the proportion of one or two delegates for each country intervening, the representatives destined to compose a committee which will be entrusted with the duty of assuring the liaison between the bureau at Lyons and the interested Governments.

This committee, which will itself fix the practical conditions of its working, will meet either at Lyons or at Paris as often as one of the members or the bureau at Lyons may require it.

The presidency will be given to the French delegate.

4. The delegates promised to submit as soon as possible to the approbation of their respective Governments the present protocol, the ratification of which will comprise, ipso facto, that of the agreement of June 9, 1917.2

Done at Paris in four originals by the representatives of the four contracting Governments, on December 17, 1917.

  • United States of America:
    • Robert Woods Bliss
  • France:
    • A. Lebrun
    • Delavaud
    • Chasseriau
  • Great Britain:
    • Joseph Addison
    • J. T. Meadows Smith
  • Italy:
    • Ant. dell’Abbadessa
  1. Received Jan. 7, 1918, with Ambassador Sharp’s despatch No. 5891 of Dec. 21, 1917, which is not printed. Agreement of June 9 printed in part, ante, p. 1169.↩
  2. Regulation not printed.↩

  3. Telegram No. 4235 (File No. 600.001/255), June 18, 1918, from the Ambassador in France, contains the following statement:

    I am informed by Ministry of Blockade that under date of January 8, the British Government notified the French of its adhesion to the protocol of December 17, 1917; that adhesion of the Italian Government is implied by the evidences that it subscribed on April 17, to deposit its quota of 2,500,000; furthermore the French competent departments have been instructed to settle the details of their Government’s participation in the expenses of the inter-Allied bureau, thus implying the recognition of the said agreement by France; that the Ministry of Blockade therefore assumes that the status of it is similar to the two latter; and the statement made by Mr. Bliss, on receipt of the Department’s telegram No. 2934, December 8, 1917, that the Government of the United States was to pay its quota, is understood as the acceptance of the protocol by the American Government.

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