500.A15a3/26: Telegram
The Ambassadors in Great Britain and Belgium (Dawes and Gibson) to the Secretary of State
[Received June 25—10:40 p.m.]
169. We called upon the Prime Minister today (June 25) after sending you our long telegram No. 168. MacDonald has decided that he will extend an invitation for a conference of nontechnical governmental [Page 136] representatives of the five naval powers and has under consideration the form of invitation which he expects to submit to us tomorrow evening, Wednesday, at 6 o’clock. MacDonald’s purposes coincide with those which we outlined to you in our longer telegram. Matsudaira also called upon us this afternoon. He is awaiting a message from his Government in full expectation of an agreement by it upon the program which we later learned MacDonald was contemplating. The Prime Minister brought up the question as to where the conference should take place, stating that if it could be held in London it would be of the greatest convenience to him. Should it take place at Paris it would be impossible for him to give his own personal and continuous attention to the progress of the work was the reason he gave for this. Furthermore, he indicated that in London the conference could be conducted with greater privacy.