861.00/5716: Telegram
The Secretary of State to the Commission to Negotiate Peace
3882. Your 5334, November 21. Following for Gade:
“With reference to the last sentence of your No. 9, November 20, 10 a.m., you are informed that it is considered unwise to interfere in any formal way in matters of this kind which, if determined in accordance with its expressed wish, would place upon this Government moral responsibilities which it is not in a position to discharge. This does not preclude your exercising personal influence, unofficially and informally, in directions known by you to be parallel with [Page 744] the general purposes of American policy, but your mission is primarily to observe conditions and report thereon to the Department.”