765.84/4130: Telegram
The Consul at Geneva (Gilbert) to the Secretary of State
[Received 6:30 p.m.]
124. 1. Having now had opportunity to learn precisely what took place in the meeting of the Committee of Thirteen described in my 121, April 16, midnight, paragraph 1, I supplement my report on certain points as follows:
Aloisi made a formal statement to Madariaga and Avenol to the effect that if the League and Ethiopia accept the Italian conditions Italy is prepared to participate actively in the present general situation in Europe.
Madariaga told the Committee that the Ethiopians had been informed of the Italian conditions and that they definitely refused the plan for direct negotiations and also that the negotiations take place outside of Geneva and had requested the Committee to conclude that the Italian Government has not agreed to negotiate within the framework of the League.
The Polish delegate stated that he was instructed by his Government to inform the Committee that his Government considers that the responsibility in the first place must be taken by the powers chiefly interested through geographic or other considerations; before the other powers can pronounce anything the interested powers must state their positions. (This was regarded as in effect a significant disavowal of League responsibility.)
Eden, although opposing any pressure upon the Ethiopians, stated that Madariaga and Avenol could tell them that if they accepted the Italian conditions the Committee would not make any objections. He then said that if the Committee were unsuccessful in bringing the two parties together, it must register the failure of conciliation and refer the matter to the Council or to the Committee of Eighteen. That organ could decide either that the League has done all that it could in this affair and so state to the world or take new action.
2. I learn respecting Eden’s reference to the matter being referred to the Council that it is the present British policy to accomplish this [Page 125] if possible. In the Council the two parties will be present and would thus, in a sense, be compelled to express their position, although perhaps Italy could in fact evade this. Likewise to a degree, the positions of the other Council powers would be brought more into the open, the British aim being to present the true picture to world opinion for its possible effect on the policy of Council states, and, at the same time, to demonstrate to British public opinion that Great Britain had done its utmost through the League.
3. I learn that the opinion is common among the Council members that the British are in close association with the Ethiopian delegation on the latter’s position here and perhaps also in Addis Ababa. Thus the positions the British may take are seen as having a relationship to this circumstance.