462.00R296/4270: Telegram
The Ambassador in France (Edge) to the Acting Secretary of State
[Received July 3—10:20 p.m.]
402. The following communiqué was issued at the close of this evening’s meeting with the French negotiators:
“Mr. Mellon, United States Secretary of the Treasury, and Mr. Walter Edge, Ambassador of the United States, conferred at the Ministry of the Interior tonight with Monsieur Aristide Briand, Minister for Foreign Affairs; Monsieur Pierre Etienne Flandin, Minister of Finance, and Monsieur André François-Poncet, Under Secretary for National Economy. The President of the Council, whose presence was required at the Chamber, left immediately after the opening of the conference.
The two delegations continued to examine President Hoover’s proposal and the French reply. Mr. Mellon confirmed the fact that the American Government had accepted the principle of the continuity of unconditional payments by Germany under the Young Plan. Several other points over which there had been certain differences of opinion were eliminated. Those which remain of lesser importance will be submitted to the examination of the Council of Ministers tomorrow.
An agreement on the technical and financial aspects of the negotiations seems possible of acceptance very soon conditional of course on the adherence of the other interested powers”.