793.94/8958
Memorandum by the Chief of the Division of Far Eastern Affairs (Hornbeck)
Reference, memorandum of conversation with the French Chargé d’Affaires, July 19, and Department’s telegram 351, July 19, 7 p.m., to Paris.
This morning I brought to the attention of the Secretary the inquiry from the French Government of which account is given in my memorandum of July 19. This noon Mr. Henry came to me at the Club and repeated almost exactly what he had said on the telephone yesterday and then asked that we give him a reply at our earliest convenience. At 7:30 this evening I spoke with Mr. Henry on the telephone and gave him our reply in the terms indicated in the second paragraph of our telegram to Paris referred to above. I said that we were in the dark with regard to just what the French Government envisaged and therefore we did not feel ourselves in position to express a view. Mr. Henry said that he had felt somewhat the same way: that his Government’s inquiry was vague; and that he understood our feeling that we were not in position to make a reply to the inquiry as made. I said that I should point out that insofar as the inquiry was in the nature of consultation we were not failing to reply: that it should be noticed that in what I had said there were two parts: (1) we stated that we were not in position to reply to the inquiry [Page 213] made; and, (2) we were calling attention to the statement which the Secretary had made on July 16 and were requesting an expression of the French Government’s views in reaction to that statement. Mr. Henry said that he understood and that he would so report to his Government.