File No. 811.74/130
The French Ambassador ( Jusserand) to the Secretary of State
[Received June 23.]
Mr. Secretary of State: During the last few months the Government of the Republic has given its attention to providing a safe way of maintaining wireless communication between France and the United States.
The surtax laid upon telegraphic cables during the war, the possibility of their being occasionally or wilfully cut, the very great progress lately achieved in wireless communication, and finally the desire to bring the two countries into closer and more direct relations are the many reasons which led the Ministry of Commerce, Posts and Telegraphs, to consider the early building in France of a new station capable of transmitting to and receiving from the United States radiotelegraphic communications of every kind.
But before arriving at a filial decision in this respect and with a view to the appropriation that must be asked of the Parliament, the French Government would like to receive from the American Government the assurance that there will be in the United States a station with which the new station can always communicate.
If the Federal Government should agree to coincide in these views, it would seem that arrangements might be made even now to settle the question of the manner of correspondence between the stations during the war and even to forecast the rules which after the war will govern the wireless communications between the two countries.
All the wireless telegraph stations in operation in the United States are at present under the control of the Federal Department of the Navy, which is the Department that will no doubt have to tell whether either of the stations at its disposal may be designated to communicate with the contemplated French station and state the hours that would be daily set apart for such communication. If such an assignment could not be made, my Government would desire to know whether a new special station could not be erected on American territory and what the conditions would be.
As for the period subsequent to the hostilities the Government of the Republic would attach great importance to knowing now, if possible, to what system of management the Federal Government intends to subject the use of wireless telegraphy within the territory of the Union.
[Page 837]In case the present system, which is tantamount to a Government monopoly, should be adhered to, the agreements made during the war could be continued as they stand and with the same force.
If on the contrary, in accordance with the traditions concerning the operation of telegraph, telephone and other systems, the United States should restore the former system of private operation by companies, it would be of great value to my Government to know under what conditions the new French station which the Ministry of Commerce proposes to create could continue to communicate with the United States. It would be particularly interesting to know whether, so far as it may be foreseen at this time, the companies operating on American territory would be placed under the obligation to correspond with none but stations also operated by companies, or allowed to correspond with Government stations.
By reason of the very high interest my Government takes in these questions and in the arrangements it will have to make in accordance with those that may be effected here, I should be very thankful to Your Excellency if you would kindly let me know, as soon as you find it possible, how the suggestions herein offered were received by the Federal authorities concerned.
Be pleased to accept [etc.]