File No. 811.2222/13528d
The Department of State to the Greek Legation
Aide-Mémoire
The Department of State has the honor to acknowledge the receipt of the informal note of the Greek Minister to Mr. Phillips of May 29,3 and the aide-mémoire of the Royal Legation of Greece of July 17, 1918,4 and to state in reply that the Acting Secretary of State would be pleased to sign, as soon as possible, with the [Page 720] Minister of Greece a military service convention in the language of the text herewith enclosed. If the Royal Legation will furnish the Department with the Greek text of the enclosed convention the Department will be glad to have the convention prepared in both the Greek and English languages for signature, at the earliest possible moment.1
The Department of State is in a position to reply in part to the suggestions made in the note of May 29, and the aide-mémoire of July 17. However convenient it might seem to be to have Greek soldiers transported from here to Greece and to have them organized here in Greek units under American or Greek officers, the War Department finds itself unable to concur in these proposals. I shall be pleased to answer your further suggestion in respect to the transportation to France by this Government of a few hundred Greek officers in the United States as soon as the decision of the competent authorities thereon has been reached.