File No. 763.72119/9102
The Special Representative ( House) to the Secretary of State
[Received November 9, 1.48 p.m.]
72. For the President and the Secretary of State:
At a conference with Clemenceau this morning I stated that the United States was inclined to favor Versailles as the meeting place for the peace conference. He assured me that if it was finally determined to have the conference at Versailles all possible facilities would be extended to the United States representatives, such as [Page 486] living accommodations and communication service. He begged me not to ask him for any particular thing but to rest assured that anything we wanted would be made available to us. He said that he would prefer to have the conference almost any place than in Geneva, even going so far as to say that he would prefer London or Washington if it were not possible to agree on Versailles. No final decision can be reached until I have had an opportunity to communicate with both George and Orlando inasmuch as before these gentlemen left Paris we had tentatively agreed on Geneva. Orlando stated, however, that any place the United States was in favor of would be satisfactory to Italy. As soon as the matter is agreed upon I shall take the necessary steps to secure appropriate accommodations.
It would greatly assist me to receive from you a definite approval of secrecy plan respecting communications set forth in my No. 51.1
- Not printed.↩