500.A15A4 General Committee/769: Telegram
The American Delegate to the General Disarmament Conference (Wilson) to the Secretary of State
[Received February 9—10:50 a.m.]
814. 1. Aghnides left for Paris last night where he will remain 2 days and proceed to London for the meeting of the officers of the Conference [Page 19] on the 13th. Avenol leaves for London at the end of the week.
2. I learn in strict confidence that members of the British Government have expressed to Henderson the feeling that presumably after Eden’s trip to Paris, Berlin, Rome, it might be advisable to hold a meeting of a number of powers represented in the Bureau and Germany in some place other than Geneva (so that Germany could attend) in order to try to bring about some measure of accord before a formal meeting of any body of the Conference.
3. As far as I can ascertain the British Government has in mind that the meeting might consist of representatives of England, France, Italy, Germany, Russia, the United States, a representative of the Little Entente, Poland and Madariaga54 representing the little eight. Also Japan might be included.
4. This plan is as yet so fluid that reference to it in public would not only be premature but might tend to defeat the possibility of bringing it about. I do not even venture to say whether it will be one of the items of discussion at the meeting of the officers of the Conference on February 13th. It may be that the British will prefer to await the results of Eden’s trip rather than risk handicapping those results by a premature disclosure of any other procedure. Indeed whether the British Government will raise such an idea at any time would appear to be contingent upon developments in France and in Austria; in other words, as to whether the condition in Europe warrants such an attempt.
Cipher texts mailed Rome, Paris, London.
- Spanish delegate to the General Commission of the Disarmament Conference.↩