763.72119/6451: Telegram
The Ambassador in Great Britain (Davis) to the Secretary of State
[Received August 30—7:45 p.m.]
2934. For the President [from House]: Today’s papers carry news that you will definitely tour the States. My best wishes go with you. I believe that the people throughout the country are tired of the technical controversies into which discussion has lately been drawn in Washington and will welcome a reassertion of the ideals America fought for and the broad principles upon which the League is based. There is a noticeable sag in popular interest in Europe as well as in America and your voice is eagerly awaited.
The world needs to be reminded of the way in which the League will serve to avoid war through discussion, delay and publicity; it needs to be assured that some program of world disarmament is really contemplated which will contribute to remedy the cost of living; it needs to be shown the closely interwoven economic relations between countries which make international cooperation not only a moral choice but a shelter and even a selfish necessity.
[Page 638]From this distance it seems to me that hostility to the League in America is almost wholly based upon article 10. You will best know after your tour is over whether or not the American people show response to the argument that we are for the first time making order out of anarchy in international relations and are laying down the principle that territory is no longer to be acquired by force of arms. It would seem that our people have not yet grasped the limitations and significance of the external aggression clause. I cannot help feeling that you will find response to the argument that we are now taking in international relations the first primitive step which the state took in requiring its citizens to go to law for the vindication of their claims. Edward House.