500.C114/465

Memorandum by the Chief of the Division of Western European Affairs (Castle) of a Conversation Between the Secretary of State, Senator Lenroot, Senator Pepper, and Mr. Castle, February 5, 1926

The Secretary read to Senators Lenroot and Pepper5 the note which had been prepared to the League of Nations giving information [Page 3] concerning the passage by the Senate of a resolution authorizing the adherence of the United States to the World Court with reservations. The Secretary explained that the idea was to inform the League of this and let the League communicate the reservations to the different nations which have signed the protocol of the Court, on the understanding that when these nations notified us direct of their adherence and we had acknowledged the communications, this would constitute the exchange of notes contemplated by the Senate reservations. Both Senator Lenroot and Senator Pepper thought that this method of procedure was unwise inasmuch as there might be criticism of the Department for asking the League to notify the different nations. They felt that we ought to write direct to the different nations, sending a certified copy of the resolution, as this was what the Senate obviously had in mind. They both felt that we should, of course, send a notification to the League which would be merely a notification with the statement that we had communicated with the different nations. The Secretary agreed to this and said that notes to the different nations would immediately be prepared. We discussed at some length the wording of these notes, to which wording the Senators agreed.

They also agreed that the note to the League should be modified at the end by making the statement that we had ourselves asked the governments of the powers signatory to the protocol, if they so wished, to signify to this government their acceptance in writing of the conditions, reservations and understandings.

W[illiam] R. C[astle], Jr.
  1. Senator Irvine L. Lenroot of Wisconsin, and Senator George Wharton Pepper of Pennsylvania, members of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.