711.5112France/183
Memorandum by Mr. Spencer Phenix, Assistant to the Under Secretary of State, of a Conversation Between the Secretary of State and the French Ambassador (Claudel), February 27, 1928
The Secretary handed to the French Ambassador at 2:30 this afternoon a note replying to the Ambassador’s note of January 21, 1928, with further reference to the so-called Briand proposal. The Ambassador read the note and said he wanted to ask one question, namely, whether the Secretary agreed with the view expressed by Senator Borah in a recent newspaper article (the New York Times of February 5, 1928) to the effect that the breach by one party of a general multilateral treaty renouncing war would release the other parties from their obligations thereunder. The Ambassador said that if a treaty could be drawn along such lines or be interpreted in the manner indicated by Senator Borah, he thought that an agreement might readily be reached.
After a brief discussion of the Locarno treaties and reference to Senator Borah’s article, the Secretary replied that while he had not given particular attention to that point since it seemed to him to be more a question of drafting than anything else, he saw no objection in principle and that he would be glad to consider the question and discuss it with Senator Borah with a view to ascertaining whether [Page 12] there would be any objection to including such a provision in the treaty if negotiations should progress to a point where the language to be employed needed to be considered. The Secretary pointed out that in his note he stated explicitly that the precise language to be used in the treaty was a matter of indifference to the United States provided the purpose was accomplished.
The Secretary informed the Ambassador that the English text of the note was being telegraphed to the American Embassy at Paris for communication to the Foreign Office for its convenience so that the Ambassador need only telegraph a French translation. The Secretary also informed the Ambassador that the note was being released to the press for publication in Wednesday morning’s papers.
Mr. Olds11 and Mr. Phenix were present during the Secretary’s interview with the Ambassador.
- Under Secretary of State.↩