462.00 R 296/382: Telegram
The Ambassador in Great Britain (Kellogg) to the Secretary of State
[Received June 25—12:21 p.m.]
225. Your no. 174, June 24, 5 p.m. The Prime Minister is out of town. Seems impossible to withdraw invitation, as he announced in Parliament on Monday that it would be extended and all papers carry this announcement. I telegraphed you yesterday that the invitation had been received and was being encoded, and the full text was sent you before your 174 reached the Embassy. I suggest that you may wish to consider the text of the Prime Minister’s communication before you decide definitely what steps shall be taken. I think refusal likely to have depressing effect.
In regard to last sentence of your telegram. Prime Minister in his statement in Parliament said, among other things:27
“The business at the inter-Allied conference will be the Dawes report. The subject matter will be the Dawes report. As soon as the Dawes report is put into operation, as soon as all the machinery is arranged for putting the Dawes report into operation, and it is actually in operation, obviously we shall go on to discuss and, I hope, to settle the other outstanding matters between France and ourselves including inter-Allied debts; but I hope the House will be perfectly clear about this, as I can assure it I am perfectly clear myself—there is going to be no mixing up of inter-Allied debt questions with the putting of the Dawes report into operation.”
- Quoted statement not paraphrased.↩