511.4a6/742
The Secretary of State to the Consul at Geneva (Gilbert)
Sir: The Department has given careful consideration to the suggestion of certain League officials, reported in your despatch No. 404 (Political), of November 8, 1932,6 that your conversation with Sir Eric Drummond regarding this Government’s position on the Narcotics Limitation Convention be made the subject of a League communiqué.
To authorize the League to make public the attitude of the United States on a particular question on the basis, not of a formal note, but of a conversation with the Secretary General or of a call at the Secretariat, would constitute a new departure in this Government’s relations with the League which would be likely to be seized upon as a significant precedent and magnified out of all proportion to the immediate issue. It might, moreover, become difficult for us to refuse to sanction similar releases on other subjects in the future, once the method has been adopted.
In any case, the desire of the United States to see the Narcotics Limitation Convention ratified within the prescribed time has been made known to all other Governments through diplomatic channels. Mr. Fuller’s statements in the Model Code Sub-Committee on the subject of financing the implementation of this Convention have undoubtedly been made known to most of the Governments concerned and are understood to have been given considerable publicity.
The Department therefore does not favor the issuance of any communiqué as suggested.
Very truly yours,
- Not printed.↩