Papers Relating to the Foreign Relations of the United States, The Paris Peace Conference, 1919, Volume XI

Paris Peace Conf. 184.00101/54

Minutes of the Daily Meetings of the Commissioners Plenipotentiary, Saturday, April 19th, 1919

April 19, 1919

• Present:
  • Mr. Lansing
  • Mr. White
  • General Bliss
  • Mr. Herter

1. Mr. Herter inquired whether it would be possible to send a telegram for Mr. Nansen⁸⁹ to the American Consul at Helsingfors requesting the latter to convey to Lenin in Moscow the text of Mr. Lansing’s letter to the President of the United States and Premiers of Great Britain, France and Italy, as well as their joint reply to that letter, regarding Mr. Lansing’s scheme for the feeding of Russia. Mr. Lansing observed that at the request of the President he had already taken up this question the previous evening with General Bliss, who had already taken up this question with Admiral Benson in turn and who was making the necessary arrangements for having the message in question sent by wireless to Russia. Regarding Feeding of Russia

2. General Bliss stated that a few days previously Mr. Lansing had referred to him a letter from Mr. Hollis, a Commissioner of the American Liquidation Commission in Paris, inquiring whether this government or any of the Allied or Associated governments would object to the sale by the A. E. F. of the surplus stocks of arms, ammunitions and field pieces on a favorable basis to Spain, Poland or Czecho-Slovakia. General Bliss then read a reply which he had written to Mr. Lansing, in which on moral grounds he strongly disapproved of this sale, but felt that legally there could be no such objection. Mr. White and Mr. Lansing heartily agreed with General Bliss in the sentiments expressed in his letter, and requested that a copy of it be sent at once to the President as well as to Mr. Hollis. Regarding Sale of Destructive War Implements

3. Mr. White read a suggested resolution which Colonel House had shown to him, and which had originated with the British Delegation in Paris, the object of which was to satisfy the Japanese claims for a recognition of racial equality without exactly stating that recognition in so many words. Colonel House had felt that the insertion of such a resolution in the Treaty of Peace might perhaps dissuade the Japanese from bringing up again the question of racial equality at the next Plenary session of the Conference. The Commissioners disapproved of the wording of the resolution in question, but Mr. Lansing agreed to endeavor to redraft it into such a form as to make it acceptable. Mr. Lansing was not convinced, however, that it would be advisable to insert such a resolution in any case. Recognition of Racial Equality

4. Mr. Herter read for the information of Mr. Lansing and Mr. White the text of two letters which General Bliss had sent to the President and to his Secretary, dealing with the question of the withdrawal of the British troops from Archangel, and with the question of the Plebiscite in Luxembourg respectively. British Troops Withdrawal From Archangel

5. Mr. Herter read a memorandum prepared by Dr. Lord for Mr. Grew, recommending that an American representative be appointed to serve on the sub-commission of the Inter-Allied Commission to Poland, which was at present sitting at Warsaw, for the purpose of watching over the execution of the armistice of February 16th, which armistice ordered the suspension of hostilities between the Germans and Poles in the province of Posen, and fixed a rough line of demarkation between the two sides. General Bliss explained that a short time before General Kernan returned from Poland two American officers had been sent out to Warsaw to assist him, a Lieut. Colonel and a Captain. The Captain had returned the previous day, having missed General Kernan at Warsaw and having not one cent of money in his possession wherewith to continue his existence in Poland. The Commissioners felt that it would be advisable to have the Lieut. Colonel in question, whom they believe to be still in Warsaw, assigned to the sub-commission indicated by Dr. Lord, provided it were possible to make some financial arrangement whereby he could be paid a sufficient amount of money for living expenses. The Commissioners request that the Secretary General be asked to look into this matter and to effect the assignment in question if the satisfactory financial arrangements could be made. American Representative To Serve on the Inter-Allied Commission to Poland

6. Memorandum No. 232 was read in which it was stated that Admiral Knapp had requested that a certain Lt. Commander Callan, an expert in aeronautics, who had recently been ordered to Paris to serve as an assistant on several of the sub-commissions of the Inter-Allied Commission on Aeronautics should be given the usual allowance for subsistence of 40 francs per day. The Commissioners agreed that it would be unwise to give Lt. Commander Callan the allowance in question since the establishing of such a procedure would necessitate the approving of a similar subsistence allowance to a considerable number of army or navy officers at present stationed in Paris, who were doing work not directly connected with the Peace Mission. Subsistence to Lt. Comdr. Callan

89. For papers relating to the proposal of Dr. Fridtjof Nansen for relief in Russia, see Foreign Relations, 1919, Russia, pp. 98 ff.