500.A15a3/457: Telegram

The Secretary of State to the Ambassador in Great Brit am (Dawes)

[Paraphrase]

333. Your telegram No. 360, December 4, 8 p.m. Your opinion that the forthcoming Conference should avoid all unnecessary distraction and should be devoted to the serious business in hand has also been reported by Belin.95 This view corresponds so exactly to my own and, I believe, to that of the rest of the delegation that I should like to encourage you in having that impression conveyed to Mr. MacDonald. For myself, I should like to avoid entertainment, and particularly the burden of public speeches, so far as may be possible until we have completed the business in hand. At best it is difficult for me to absent myself from this country, and every day that it is possible to save in prolonged absence is important. We intend to remain until something is accomplished, but we want to accomplish it as speedily as we can.

Stimson
  1. F. Lammot Belin, First Secretary of the Embassy in Great Britain.