800.51W89 France/855: Telegram
The Chargé in France (Marriner) to the Secretary of State
[Received 9:04 p.m.]
93. Referring to the Embassy’s No. 79, March 8, noon,83 the efforts to induce the Chamber of Deputies to reverse its decision on the December [Page 872] 15 payment are continuing. Prime Minister Daladier has even made it known confidentially that he would be willing to risk his government on the question but his friends and in particular the Foreign Office have dissuaded him from any such gesture on the basis that it would be far worse to have a second failure than to let matters rest. However, Herriot,85 Painlevé86 and others have all been using their influence among the deputies and, according to most reliable information, there is only lacking for the necessary majority the votes of a certain group of the Socialist Party upon which at present the efforts of all those interested in this result are being concentrated.
Léger87 informs me late this afternoon that every effort is being made for the success of this gesture and it is his earnest hope that it can be accomplished in order to remove any impediment to the realization of a solidarity between the United States, Great Britain and France which, in view of the news from Geneva, is, from information received, becoming more and more essential. He felt that if this were done spontaneously and of free will there could be no implication that it was an effort of France to purchase the support it desires.