File No. 763.72/13346
The Ambassador in Great Britain ( Page) to the Secretary of State
[Received 2.86 p.m.]
9219. For the President and the Secretary:
Secretary Baker returned to France this morning, having spent Sunday and Monday here. He had interviews with the King and the principal members of the Government including the Prime Minister, Balfour, Derby, all heartily welcoming him and much gratified at his visit. They urged necessity of utmost and immediate American help in the present military crisis.
I understand Mr. Baker is including in a telegraphic report to you the Prime Minister’s urgent hope which he expressed to both of us that the United States strain every effort to rush further military reinforcements to France at this most critical hour. The Prime Minister particularly wishes this not only for the help it will give but also for its steadying effect on the public mind in France and Great Britain.
The tense anxiety here was slightly relaxed last night but this morning the yet unpublished news is even worse than was indicated in my telegram of Sunday. The possibility is admitted in Government circles of a disastrous end of the war. Lord Derby remarked to me that if all possible American troops do not get in at once they may have no chance to get in at all. The British resolution has not weakened and every available man is being rushed from England to France.
The President’s telegram to Haig was much appreciated here.