711.4112Anti-War/20: Telegram
The Ambassador in Great Britain (Houghton) to the Secretary of State
[Received May 2—6:45 a.m.]
93. Your 104, April 30, 1 p.m. I am informed that purely as matter of tactics the Government is now inclined to accept without serious discussion your proposal and to approach the entire subject of reservations, interpretations, and similar matters only after the antiwar treaty is signed. I am told also that the Government will urge France to follow the same procedure on ground that too great insistence now on reservations may endanger whole scheme and that the [Page 45] treaty must inevitably tend to maintain the status quo in Europe, the maintenance of which is, of course, the dominant aim of French policy.
I cannot vouch for the foregoing, but it does not seem unreasonable to suppose that British mediation may take that line.