Paris Peace Conf. 184.82/13
The Chief of the Press Bureau (Baker) to the Secretary of State
[Paris,] January 21, 1919.
Subject: Resolutions of the American Press
Correspondents.
1. At the request of the officers of the Newspaper Correspondents’
Association, I am enclosing herewith a copy of the resolutions adopted at
the recent meeting relative to publicity of the Peace Conference. It is a
response to the statement of the Peace Conference on the same subject issued
last Thursday [Friday].7
[Enclosure]
Resolutions of American Press
Representatives
The American press delegation acknowledges receipt of the reply of the
Peace Conference to the resolutions addressed to them.
[Page 491]
The delegation notes that the decision that “representatives of the press
shall be admitted to the meetings of the full Conference” is an
acceptance of the principle of direct press representation for which the
press of America, Great Britain, Italy and the smaller nations
contended.
The value of this principle, however, turns upon the extent and frequency
of its limitations in practice. The Peace Conference announces its
intention to limit it to the extent that “upon necessary occasions the
deliberations of the Conference may be held in camera”. Without assent
on our part to this limitation, we trust that if ever it is applied the
public will be advised through the press at the outset of each session
in camera of the subject to be discussed and the name of the delegate or
delegation making the motion to go into camera; and at the close of the
session the conclusions or agreements reached.
In view of the fact that we have not been advised to the contrary, we
necessarily assume that any rule designed to prohibit communication
between individual delegates and the press on the subjects of the
Conference has now been abrogated; and that the press is to have access
to verbatim records of the proceedings.
We call the attention of the Peace Conference to our request for not
fewer than five direct press representatives at each session of the
Conference and we submit that, because of the manner in which the
several press associations serve the newspapers of America and because
of the attendance upon the Conference of numerous individual press
representatives, American newspapers cannot carry on their business of
informing their vast public with fewer than five.
Committee:
Mark
Sullivan
,
Chairman.
Arthur B.
Krock
,
Secretary.R. V.
Oulahan,
Herbert
Bayard Swope
,
John Edwin Nevin
,
Paul Scott
Mowrer
,
David
Lawrence.