500.A15A5/49: Telegram

The Secretary of State to the Ambassador in Great Britain ( Bingham )

203. Your 264, May 18, 1 p.m. The proposal made to you this morning by the Foreign Office seems entirely in line with the arrangements talked over by Norman Davis and Craigie and referred to in our 168, April 28, 6 p.m. Our instinct is to send an early acceptance and to arrange for Admiral Leigh39 and Commander Wilkinson40 to sail as soon as possible nominally for Geneva but later to join Norman Davis in London. The caution, however, which you suggested in your 259, May 17, 5 p.m., and repeated in the last sentence of your 264, leads us before taking any action to ask you to specify more fully what you had in mind. Please answer immediately as time is pressing.

In pursuance of your recommendations Davis has given up all idea of proceeding to Geneva via London and will instead disembark at Cherbourg and proceed via Paris.

Hull
  1. Richard H. Leigh, Chairman of General Board, Navy Department.
  2. Theodore S. Wilkinson, Secretary of General Board, Navy Department.