793.94 Commission/580: Telegram
The Secretary of State to the Acting Chairman of the American Delegation to the General Disarmament Conference (Gibson)
43. [For Wilson.] Your 52, November 30, 11 a.m. and further reference to your 50, November 25, 9 p.m.
1. This Government would have no objection in principle in cooperating, for considering this problem, in a body in which a representative of the Soviets may be sitting.
2. I feel that the responsibility should not be shifted. It lies and it should remain with the League. The League is being tested and the sincerity of the leading members thereof with regard to the peace movement and the peace machinery are under scrutiny. Any attempt to transfer jurisdiction to a smaller body would indicate inability or unwillingness to fulfill obligations implicit and explicit in the Covenant.
If the idea develops of extending to Soviet Russia and the United States an invitation to participate in the deliberations of the Committee of Nineteen it should be understood that jurisdiction and responsibility would still rest with the League and that the American representative would function on the basis of cooperation but without commitment either of himself or of the United States to act under the constitutional provisions of the Covenant of the League. The set-up would be that of a group consisting of a committee of the League and representatives of the United States and Soviet Russia.
It would be my idea that a group thus constituted would function as a committee of conciliation and that such restrictions as we placed upon Gilbert when we instructed him to sit in meetings of the Council, namely, that his participation in discussion should be limited to discussion of the subject of the applicability of the Pact of Paris, would not need to be imposed in connection with the participation of a representative of this country in the deliberations of such a commission of conciliation, which like all other commissions of conciliation can act only with the consent of the two contestants. Our representative [Page 386] would, of course, have to refer back to his Government for assent to conclusions arrived at, just as the Committee of Nineteen itself would have to refer back to the Assembly as such and as members thereof would in all probability be referring back to their own governments respectively.
It seems to me that, among the various ideas which appear to have been under discussion, the establishing of such a commission would be the most practicable.
3. The above represents my thought at present. I feel that we should take no initiative with regard to the idea but should await approach to us by the League. If they come to you with such a project or an alternative along similar lines, you should discuss the matter freely with them, without committing me, and report.