574.D1/25
The Secretary of State to the British Chargé (Lindsay)
Sir: I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt, in due course, of your note No. 178 of March 22, 1920, in which, with reference to the Department’s note of March 9, concerning the preliminary conference to be held in Washington on the subject of international communications, you stated by direction of your Government that even if the agenda were to reach London at once, there would not [Page 117] be time before May to consult the Governments of the Dominions, a step which is, in the view of His Majesty’s Government, absolutely essential, and that your Government, therefore, finds it necessary to ask that the meeting of the conference be postponed.
In reply I have the honor to say that since November 15 has been fixed as the date for the convening of the International Communications Conference, it is felt that the preliminary conference, composed of the principal Allied and Associated Powers to consider the agenda for the world conference, should meet some months prior to that time. In view of the fact, however, that it now appears that May 1 is an inconvenient date, August 1, it is thought, will be agreeable to the powers concerned, and this Government, consequently, suggests that date instead of May 1.
The American Embassies at London, Paris, Rome and Tokyo have been advised in the above sense.88
Accept [etc.]
- Telegrams of Apr. 8, 5 p.m.; not printed.↩