765.84/734: Telegram
The Consul at Geneva (Gilbert) to the Secretary of State
[Received August 4—9:35 a.m.]
268. Consulate’s 267, August 4, 10 a.m.48 I learn from a member of the French press that Laval49 informed them that Politis, Greek Minister at Paris, had been agreed upon by the two parties as satisfactory as the fifth arbitrator. It appears that Politis was proposed by Laval, accepted by Aloisi and later by Jèze.
It remains of course technically the function of the Commission itself to designate a fifth arbitrator.
Some amazement is expressed here and naturally a questioning of Politis’ own role in this affair in that the Italians should accept him in the face of his well known special relations of some standing with Addis Ababa. I now learn in this connection that Politis was named by the Abyssinians as an original member of the Commission but that Rome, taking the matter up with Athens at that time, prevented his acceptance.