740.00/436
Memorandum of Conversation, by the Secretary of State
The French Ambassador95 called on his own request before sailing for home the middle of this week for a two months’ vacation.
The Ambassador inquired about the possibilities of neutrality legislation by our Congress next winter. I replied that we were not unmindful of all the important phases of the neutrality problem; that we could not forecast the state of mind of Congress when it convenes in January; that we were, however, making a study of every phase of the neutrality question and assembling a large assortment of information and data pertaining to the subject, as stated. I left the matter in this form.
The Ambassador had nothing new to offer relative to the peace situation in Europe. He expressed the view that any trade agreement between this country and Great Britain96 would have a fine moral influence on the European political situation, as well as the economic situation.
I again repeated to him the extreme importance of thirty-five or forty nations getting behind our eight or ten point program with renewed earnestness and activity. I said that the moral influence of this course on countries like Germany and Italy would be greater than any other influence short of force; that there could not be permanent stable conditions of peace or economic well-being, or law and order in and between the nations in Europe and elsewhere unless our broad basic program is subscribed to in spirit and, in fact, by the important nations everywhere; that our program naturally is a long-view program; that it, therefore, does not consider, either pro or con, any steps for temporary peace in a locality or region, or steps intended to avoid a dangerous crisis; that our program simply says in effect that, in the long run, there can be no stable peace, business prosperity or order based on law unless these principles are subscribed to. The Ambassador seemed clearly to understand that I was not passing in any sense, either pro or con, on any of the present reported steps looking toward temporary peace in Europe, and hence to the avoidance of dangerous crises.
- René Doynel de Saint-Quentin.↩
- See vol. ii, pp. 1 ff.↩