500.C1199/228: Telegram
The Minister in Switzerland (Wilson), Temporarily at Paris, to the Secretary of State
[Received September 18—12:20 p.m.]
885. Department’s 349, September 15, 6 p.m.16 I [spoke regarding] this matter, in the terms of your telegram, with the official at the Foreign Office in charge of economic affairs on the morning of the 16th. He said that he was particularly glad to know at that time of the Department’s reaction to the report since an inter-Ministerial conference was to be held that afternoon to determine the attitude which the French Government would adopt at Geneva regarding the report.
I was called to the Foreign Office this morning and handed an aide-mémoire the text of which I was informed had received the approval of the Foreign Office and of the Prime Minister. It reads in translation as follows:
“The Government of the United States has made known to the French Government that having taken note of the recent report of the Economic Committee of the League of Nations, it approves the substance thereof as being in harmony with the program which it had always itself desired to be realized by the concerted action of other governments. The interest of the Government of the United States was that this report should not remain a dead letter but should on the contrary be the point of departure of action by all interested governments. It desired in this connection to know the instructions which would be given to the French delegation at the forthcoming meeting of the Council and of the Assembly.
The French Government is glad in its turn to make known to the American Government that on the whole the principles set forth in the report of the Economic Committee of the League have its full support, that they will inspire its attitude during the next assembly of the League because they seem to it susceptible of furnishing the basis for action capable of greatly improving the situation of international trade.
The French Government is ready to proceed to a more complete exchange of views with representatives of the Government of the United States regarding the most equitable method of drawing all the appropriate conclusions from the recommendations of the Economic Committee of the League of Nations.”
Repeated to Geneva and copy to London.