Edward M. House Papers
Colonel E. M. House to President Wilson
Withyham, Sussex.
August 11, 1919.
Dear Governor: I am enclosing you a copy of a cable which I sent you on the 9th.86
Haldane telephoned this morning and asked me to come to London to lunch at the Prime Minister’s with Grey and himself. I had a chill day before yesterday and was not quite equal to the trip but Grey is coming down here this afternoon. Before I close this letter I will let you know the final outcome and will also send you a cable tomorrow.
I am very happy at the turn things have taken. It is not only that Grey’s going has brought George and his Ministers to terms regarding the essential questions between our two countries, but since I last wrote you the Government have been hammered mercilessly by the Liberals.
A week or ten days ago a dinner was given me at the Reform Club to meet most of the representative liberal writers in England. I am enclosing you an extract from a letter which I have just received from Sir George Paish giving the result of the conference.87 I gave these men sufficient information to guide them in their editorial work, [Page 633] and I am already beginning to see the result. The atmosphere has cleared considerably and with Grey in Washington with you I have no doubt but that everything will come right.
It is my intention to sail for home around the middle of September. There is no need of remaining longer than that. If Mandate A is to be finished before the Turkish Treaty is formed as we desire, there will be ample time to accomplish it before then. If the Council of the League of Nations should sit before our Senate ratifies the Treaty, it would not do for me to sit with them although it has been intimated that as a matter of courtesy they would like a representative of the United States to be present.
We are having a difference of opinion in regard to the time of the meeting of the Assembly. I am urging that it sit in Washington just as soon as the Treaty is ratified by the Senate and enough of the other powers to put it into force. Cecil and Drummond take a contrary view. They do not want it to be called until early next year or in the Spring. I consider this would be a great mistake, and every liberal in England with whom I have talked have [has] expressed an agreement with me. This includes Grey and Haldane and the liberal group of editors whom I met at the Reform Club. To delay the meeting of the Assembly as long as Cecil and Drummond desire would be to disappoint the world and make it feel that the League was to be another Hague Conference fiasco.
Cecil’s argument is that there ought not to be a meeting until an agenda of sufficient importance is worked out to make it impressive. My contention is that an agenda can be formulated within an hour and then committees can be appointed at the Washington meeting to report if necessary at the next meeting of the Assembly which could be held in Geneva in the early winter or spring. The world would then have an assurance of the things that were in contemplation and under way. Happily, the matter is in your hands and the meeting can be called when in your judgment it seems best to do so.
My principal activities with the League now are to delay action and thus far I have been successful.
Affectionately yours,
P. S. Grey has decided to go as Special Envoy about September fifteenth. Do you expect to make your speaking tour, and will you be back by then? He is laying down conditions which will be of the greatest advantage in the settlement of controversies.