500.A15A4 Steering Committee/349: Telegram
The Chairman of the American Delegation ( Davis ) to the Secretary of State
[Received October 25—2:45 p.m.]
761. 1. Acting upon Henderson’s suggestion the Bureau this afternoon decided to make the following recommendations to the General Commission: [Page 299]
- (1)
- To entrust the Bureau to carry on the work of the Conference so as to enable the draft convention revised and brought up to date to be put before the General Commission in second reading at its next meeting.
- (2)
- To adjourn the General Commission until December 4th, the President and the Bureau being authorized at that time further to postpone the meeting if it was then considered sufficient progress had not been made.
2. Henderson made it clear that the Bureau should accept the responsibility for negotiating the points of difficulty still outstanding and should decide how these negotiations were to be carried on.
3. The suggestion for continuing the work of the Conference was supported by France and England and accepted without much discussion save as regards certain hesitations on the part of Holland and Switzerland concerning the future date for the meeting of the General Commission.
4. After the meeting of the General Commission tomorrow the Bureau will again be convened to decide upon the future procedure and what form the negotiations in preparation for the second reading should take. In proposing this Massigli stated that the French Government felt these negotiations should take place in Geneva. He also said that the changes in the French Government do not alter France’s desire that the Conference should continue since, on October 16, the Chamber of Deputies had by a three-fourths majority voted that the work of the Conference should proceed.
5. I took no part in the discussions this afternoon.