862t.01/214
The Acting Secretary of State to the French Ambassador (Jusserand)
Excellency: I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of your note of December 11 [17], 1920, in which you suggest that instructions be given the American representative on the Rhineland High Commission to join in a collective statement to the representative of the German Government that should German ministers again make statements in the occupied territory calculated to disturb the peace of those regions, the German Government will make itself liable to such action as the occupying authorities deem necessary for the safety of the Allied troops.
In reply I have the honor to inform you that since the United States has no diplomatic representative in Berlin, this Government did not join in the formal protest sent to the German Government on the subject of the speeches made by Ministers Simons and Fehrenbach.50 As General Allen, moreover is only unofficially a member of the Rhineland High Commission, it would not appear desirable that he should join the Commission in any formal statement. Should such a statement be issued, however, the American Commissioner will be authorized to investigate the matter and if in his judgment any useful purpose can be served, he will unofficially seek an opportunity [Page 343] informally to advise the German Government against such activities.
Accept [etc.]
- Dr. Walter Simons, Minister of Foreign Affairs, and Constantin Fahrenbach, Chancellor, members of German Cabinet of June 27, 1920.↩