765.84/708: Telegram
The Consul at Geneva (Gilbert) to the Secretary of State
[Received August 1—7:08 a.m.]
258. Private negotiations are in progress between the British, French and Italians with conversations with the Abyssinians. The current [Page 622] aspect of these negotiations is that the French have gained the middle position between Great Britain and Italy, negotiating with the British from the vantage point of prior understandings with the Italians while the British are thus far unsuccessfully striving to arrange with the French a common front to present to the Italians. The relationship between Abyssinia and France and between Abyssinia and Great Britain remains here exceedingly obscure as well as the entire matter of Abyssinian policy or tactics vis-à-vis the League, the general impression being, however, that their diplomacy is not in good hands.