File No. 763.72Su/32½

The Secretary of State to the Ambassador in France ( Sharp )1

[Telegram]

3197. For your information and not for communication to the Government to which you are accredited. The Department has to-day addressed the following note to the British, French and Italian Ambassadors at this capital:

Referring to the recent action of the Supreme War Council in regard to conditions of peace and to the action of the Inter-Allied Board with regard to the recognition of the Bolshevik authorities,2 I beg to inform you that the President wishes very respectfully but very earnestly to urge that when he suggested the creation of the Inter-Allied Board and gave his active support to the creation of the Supreme War Council it was not at all in his mind that either of these bodies should take any action or express any opinion on political subjects. He would have doubted the wisdom of appointing representatives of this Government on either body had he thought that they would undertake the decision of any questions but the very practical questions of supply and of the concerted conduct of the war which it was understood they should handle. He would appreciate it very much if this matter were very thoroughly reconsidered by the political leaders of the Governments addressed and if he might be given an opportunity, should their view in this matter differ from his, to consider once more the conditions and instructions under which representatives of the United States should henceforth act.

Lansing
  1. The same, on the same date, to the Ambassadors in Great Britain (No. 6606) and Italy (No. 1080).
  2. See telegram No. 3135, Feb. 2, from the Ambassador in France, ante, p. 70, and telegram No. 8656, Feb. 14, from the Ambassador in Great Britain, Foreign Relations, 1918, Russia, vol. III, p. 34.