500.A15/855: Telegram

The Minister in Switzerland (Wilson) to the Secretary of State

[Paraphrase]

17. Reference my despatch No. 733, February 9. Mr. Colban has returned from his second trip. Yesterday he informed me that although he encountered no opposition to the project, he met with an entirely noncommittal attitude except from Germans. He was informed by Bernstorff that German delegation to last two sessions of Preparatory Commission had been seriously reproached, after its return home, not because of failure of Commission to reach an agreement but on ground that the German delegation had specifically failed to provoke a serious debate in effort to reach an agreement. This time, therefore, they were under the necessity of pushing the Commission into a serious discussion of all points, and under this impulsion Bernstorff intends to introduce resolution to form subcommittee to debate naval questions. Presumably this subcommittee will be composed of chief delegates of naval Powers and not of experts.

Since the Three Power Conference in 1927,9 much propaganda has been disseminated to effect that naval difficulty of France is chief obstacle to an accord, and blame for failure has been placed on naval Powers. Colban’s plan to place naval matter at end of agenda unquestionably will bring out on other points differences of opinion as profound as those existing on naval questions. From our point of view his plan would seem advisable way to approach the problem, as [Page 69] it would make clear that naval question is only one of many in regard to which profound differences of opinion exist.

Mr. Colban emphasized purely tentative nature of his plan, and states that it is his hope that in the next Council the representatives of the Great Powers can be induced to discuss these matters and that he will keep me advised of results of such discussions. In meantime, he was particularly anxious that any suggestion from the United States regarding our preferences on procedure should arrive as soon as possible so that he might utilize it discreetly in conversation with the representatives of the other states before the actual meeting takes place. He would appreciate having even an expression as to whether his program would, in general, meet with our approval. Considering the essentially negative attitude of almost all the other delegations, any preference we might express of a positive nature should have strong chance of adoption.

Wilson