882.01 Foreign Control/392
Memorandum by the Chief of the Division of Western European Affairs (Moffat) of a Conversation With the British Chargé (Osborne)
Mr. Osborne stated that he had received an instruction from the Foreign Office asking him to urge the American Government to persuade the Firestones to start private negotiations with the League officials just as soon as was humanly possible as they were anxious to close up the whole matter during this session of the Council.
I told Mr. Osborne the story in brief of the negotiations at Geneva. I said that we had always maintained the position that before transmitting the League plan to the Firestone interests, we must be [Page 767] assured (1) that adequate authority was delegated to the principal advisers, and (2) that the Liberian Government had agreed to this delegation of authority. As far as point 1 was concerned we were now satisfied; point 2, however, remained in some doubt. Reber, our Delegate, had written a letter to Lord Cecil asking him if the acceptance of the report by the Liberian Delegate constituted a binding obligation on the Liberian Government. No answer had as yet been received and until we were satisfied on that point, we did not feel that we could transmit the document to the Firestones.