Paris Peace Conf. 184.6/72
The Secretary General of the Commission to Negotiate Peace (Grew) to the American Secretaries of the Commissions and Committees on the Peace Conference
[Paris,] March 4, 1919.
Subject: Distribution of Minutes of the Various Sub-Committees and Special Commissions of the Conference.
- 1.
- Please refer to Section I, paragraph 2, of my communication of February 24, 1919, relative to the above subject. In connection with the purpose expressed therein on the part of the Secretary General of the Peace Conference to circulate minutes of the meetings of the different commissions and committees among the delegations not represented on these organizations, it has been found that this action, under certain circumstances, might prove undesirable.
- 2.
- The matter therefore has been taken up with the Secretary General of the Conference with the result that he has stated that at a meeting of the Secretariat General of the Conference, it was decided that procès verbaux and minutes of the committees would not be circulated except to delegations represented thereon.
- 3.
- The Secretary General of the Conference, however, is desirous of being furnished with thirty copies of these minutes in English after their approval by the commission for the archives of the Conference. It is stated that none of the minutes which have come into the hands of the Secretary General have up to the present been given general circulation.
- 4.
- The above comments also bear on paragraph 2, of Section II, of my communication of February 24, 1919, and you will be guided accordingly.
- 5.
- May I also take this occasion to remind you of the necessity for having printed copies of the final reports of the commission to which you may be attached ready for distribution at least twenty-four hours before the matter is to be considered by the representatives of the Associated Great Powers in the Bureau Conference. Thirty copies of the English text of these printed reports should be furnished Mr. Leland Harrison, the Diplomatic Secretary of the Commission for use of the American Commissioners, Technical Advisors and Technical Experts in a limited distribution, and probably one hundred copies should be furnished the Secretary General of the Conference, as suggested in paragraph 2, of Section III, of my communication above noted.
- 6.
- These should be available, at the latest, on the afternoon of Friday, March 7.
J. C. Grew