741.65/633
Memorandum of Conversation, by the Under Secretary of State (Welles)
The French Ambassador called to see me this evening to inquire the purport and meaning of the statement made yesterday by the President with regard to the signing of the British-Italian accord. I told the Ambassador that it would seem to me that the statement of the President spoke for itself; that the President had made it clear that this Government was in no sense passing upon nor weighing the merits of the political features of that agreement and had merely expressed the gratification of the United States upon the finding of a solution through pacific negotiation of controversial questions which had arisen between two friendly governments. I made it clear to the Ambassador that it was the method of finding this solution which the President had expressed sympathetic interest in and not the contents of the agreement itself.
The Ambassador inquired whether this Government had reached any decision with respect to recognition of the Ethiopian conquest. I replied to the Ambassador that the position of this Government was exactly the same as it had been during the past two and a half years; that the nations members of the League of Nations were to determine their own attitude at the meeting of the Council scheduled for May 9 next and that this Government would subsequently determine whether it would modify in any manner the position it had assumed. I said to the Ambassador that this Government had been outstanding in its support of the principle of nonrecognition of the acquisition of territory through force and the consideration of any deviation from that stand could only be undertaken if in the independent judgment of this Government it believed it desirable to do so as an integral part of a major world appeasement.