500.A15A4/1494: Telegram

The Secretary of State to the American Delegate (Wilson)

213. For Davis. Your 393, October 3, 2 p.m. and 394. The British Chargé called this afternoon and delivered a message from Sir John Simon suggesting that Davis join the meeting in London on October 11 to consider ways and means of bringing Germany back into the Disarmament Conference. I told the Chargé that I wished to consider this subject somewhat further before giving a final answer. First of all I wished to be assured that the plan was acceptable to France and Germany and that the conversations would be entered into by all participants with the conviction that this offered the best means of persuading Germany to continue her cooperation in disarmament. Unless we were virtually assured in advance that there would be no objection on the part of the other Powers invited, there would be serious danger of a public controversy arising in which the purpose of the meeting as being confined to disarmament might be misrepresented, to our serious embarrassment. In the second place I pointed out that I feared if the conversations were held in London that they might be too much dramatized, and although this was a [Page 454] minor consideration I wished that the meetings might be held within reach of Geneva.

I hope you will telegraph me as soon as possible any information you may be able to obtain with regard to French and German reaction to these questions.

Stimson