500.A15A4/2366: Telegram
The American Delegate (Wilson) to the Acting Secretary of State
[Received 8:20 p.m.]
787. 1. I have just had a talk with Simon and Eden. Simon said that he understood that the French were desiring to pursue a path along which he did not feel he could go; that the French apparently considered that a convention should be written adopting the program of modifications that was acceptable last October to France, Great Britain, Italy and the United States. Simon said that it was clear that such procedure was no longer acceptable to Italy nor did the British now think it wise to continue in this direction. He asked me for the views of my Government thereon.
2. I said that I had had no instructions on this point since the departure of Mr. Davis; that indeed the work we had been doing here the past several weeks was of such a nature that I had had no need to ask for instructions; that my personal thought was that we had all considered the proposed modifications of the British project with the hope that these modifications might be the means of bridging the difficulty between France and Germany; that that endeavor to find such a bridge had failed with Germany’s withdrawal; that Germany clearly would not accept such modifications and that I personally doubted the wisdom of writing a convention containing modifications which we knew in advance Germany would not take. I stated, however, that even if my Government was of the same opinion as Simon I felt that they would not desire in the present situation to bring pressure on France. The French ran the most risk and there was nothing we could do in the way of guarantee to minimize that risk; that therefore the French must make their own decision without pressure at least on the part of the United States. I added that I could give no more than my personal opinion until I had consulted my Government which I would do at once.
[Page 309]3. Simon said that he and Eden had seen Henderson this morning and had found that he also shared the opinion that we should not endeavor to modify the British draft in the sense of the ideas prevalent in October.
4. The British draft convention, Simon said, seemed to be the only possible platform. Doubtless it would have to be changed, indeed all states would probably insist on certain amendments, but Germany had accepted this draft as well as most of the rest of the world and it seemed that the only practical thing to do was to get back to it. Simon seemed to cherish the hope that the Italians, British and ourselves would make it clear to the French that the modifications, while some of them may be adopted, could not be considered as binding upon us since Italy no longer considered them binding and since Germany had left the discussions.
5. I said that news from Paris both from the declarations of Boncour and leading articles in the Temps seemed to make it clear that the French would adopt a rigid attitude and would insist upon the maintenance of all the modifications as a maximum of concession. Simon had the same impression but added “they, the French, had better give second thought to that decision.”
6. I would greatly appreciate the expression of your views as urgently as possible as to what our attitude should be. After this expression of the British attitude and from what we know to be the Italian attitude I should be inclined to say to the French when the moment arrives that we fell in with the modifications of October in the hope that a compromise between France and Germany could be reached; that the Germans having refused and withdrawn the situation had altered. We could not see a useful purpose in drafting a convention containing such modifications as we are convinced Germany would refuse. On the other hand since France bore the brunt of the present decision we do not feel at liberty to urge them to take a step in any direction which they felt unwise and that as far as the United States was concerned no pressure would be exerted upon France to change its decision. Indeed the immediate phase of the disarmament discussions is of a primarily European aspect and our policy had been clearly outlined in Mr. Davis’ statement of October 16th and we would hope for a speedy clarification of the situation.
7. Simon and Eden left me to see Boncour with whom they had an appointment. It was understood that we would continue this conversation at a later date and Simon said that he would be deeply interested to learn the views of my Government.