857H.01/101
Memorandum by the Under Secretary of State (Phillips) of a Conversation With the French Ambassador (Laboulaye), November 23, 1934
Under instructions from his Government the French Ambassador inquired “as a matter of courtesy”, as he put it, whether the United States Government had any objection to the French Government approaching the Soviet Government with a view to securing the Soviet Government’s adhesion to the Treaty of Spitzbergen, signed in Paris on February 9, 1920. This treaty, according to the Ambassador, merely legalizes the existing situation in Spitzbergen. The United States has already signed and presumably ratified this treaty. I could not ascertain very definitely from the Ambassador precisely why the French Government made the above inquiry. I replied that personally I could not imagine that we had any objection to the proposed French action, but that I would gladly look into the matter and telephone him in the course of the day.