611.5131/922: Telegram
The Secretary of State to the Ambassador in France (Edge)
432. Your 705, Dec. 10, 10 a.m. As soon as the debt situation has passed its present acute phase, I wish that you would telegraph me whether you feel that continuing negotiations for a commercial treaty can be kept separate in the French mind from “other forms of tangible compensation available for the expansion of markets for products of American agriculture and labor,” to which reference is made in our note to the French.
My remaining preoccupation just now is not to prejudice in any way the ultimate settlement of the debt problem. If you see a way to maintain the independent character of these commercial negotiations, I am prepared to recommend to the President to send you full powers and leave to your discretion the decision of accepting such of the French proposals as would result in a treaty which would sufficiently improve the existing situation from the point of view of American trade as a whole to justify the departures which it would involve from our general treaty policy.