500.A15A4 General Committee/4: Telegram
The Acting Chairman of the American Delegation (Gibson) to the Secretary of State
[Received February 24—4:24 p.m.]
47. Drummond explained to me before the plenary session this morning that the reason for throwing the whole mass of material into the General Committee was that fight would be staged as to the consideration of the French and German proposals and whether they should be broken up into parts or considered as a whole. Any decision, he said, that was reached by the Bureau would naturally have been unsatisfactory to one of the other side and would have been appealed to the General Committee where ultimate decision lies and the whole matter have to be fought all over again. Thus that what seems bad procedure in this case is destined actually to facilitate the progress of the Conference by permitting only one discussion of this [Page 48] subject and only one decision and that without appeal. I made very clear our position with regard to the surprise tactics and the non-circulation in advance of the resolutions for this purpose and stated that I was still firmly of the opinion that the Bureau contained the only possible method of making progress. Drummond said that there was no question but that it could be got back on to the rails and serve its purpose once the elementary decisions as to the order of work had been taken in the larger body. I have confirmed this understanding to Henderson in writing.