500.A15A/99: Telegram
The Secretary of State to the Ambassador in Great Britain ( Bingham )
253. [For Davis.] Your 335, June 19, 5 p.m. We fully concur with the emphasis you lay on the necessity of keeping the present naval conversations most secret. Phillips85 and Moffat86 have talked with Admiral Standley87 and have worked out a system which it is believed will prevent any possible leaks.
We are playing down the conversations here telling the press that we anticipate they will be rather drawn out and undramatic. There has been a good deal of publicity from London which we are watching closely. Is it not possible that the correspondents have some of our naval views prepared for the 1932 Geneva Conference88 and are endeavoring to smoke out your position by pretending to have information of our present position? At any rate, you can count on the utmost care and cooperation at this end.
- William Phillips, Under Secretary of State.↩
- Pierrepont Moffat, Chief of the Division of Western European Affairs.↩
- William H. Standley, Chief of Naval Operations.↩
- Conference for the Reduction and Limitation of Armaments; for correspondence, see Foreign Relations, 1932, vol. i, pp. 1 ff.↩