Office of the Historian

882.73/11: Telegram

The Acting Secretary of State to the Ambassador in Great Britain (Davis)

Washington, January 11, 1919, 4 p.m.

4017. Department has today sent the following instruction to the American Chargé d’Affaires in Paris for communication to the French Government:

[Here follows substance of telegram printed supra.]

Please advise the British Foreign Office of the position of this Department and express to the Minister of Foreign Affairs this Government’s abiding interest in the welfare of Liberia. You will say that the Department cannot believe that the British Government would regard with sympathy the grave step proposed by the French Government which seems so wholly inconsistent with the principles for which the associated governments have been contending.

Cable the views of the British Government.

Polk