800.51 W 89France/98: Telegram
The Ambassador in France (Herrick) to the Secretary of State
[Received March 20—9:50 a.m.]
188. Minister of Finance has called on me and intimated that he would study modifications I had suggested of his proposals and of which I informed Department in my telegram number 8, January 3, 11 a.m. Clémentel realizes great importance financially and otherwise to France of settlement of debt question, and I am hopeful that he will modify his proposals to extent where it may be possible for the Debt Commission to regard them as basis for negotiations.
Franklin-Bouillon, the President of the Foreign Affairs Committee, Chamber of Deputies, and one who is likely to hold a position in the Cabinet if a not unlikely change of government takes place, has told me that the French must concentrate on problem of security, but once this problem is solved, he hopes for settlement of debt question. He has in mind a small joint committee, of which he would be the head, representing both the Senate and the Chamber of Deputies, who would be empowered by the Committees for Foreign Affairs of the Senate and the Chamber to go to Washington in the autumn to negotiate with the World War Foreign Debt Commission.