026 Foreign Relations/1388
The Ambassador in France (Bullitt) to the Secretary of State
[Received September 22.]
Sir: I have the honor to refer further to the Department’s instruction No. 689, of February 15, 1938,29 and subsequent correspondence relating to the policy of publishing Foreign Relations volumes approximately fifteen years after the date of the documents printed in the volumes in question. As the Department was informed by the Embassy’s despatch No. 2087, of April 16, 1938,30 a note embodying a full statement of the Department’s position in respect of the publication of documents and a summary of the desires of the Department and of representative elements in the United States to see the fifteen year limitation on the publication of documents lessened, was transmitted to the Foreign Office on March 3, 1938. During the interim, occasion was taken to remind the Foreign Office by note and [Page 987] personal call of the Department’s interest in obtaining an early and favorable response to its suggestions.
The Embassy is now in receipt of a Note of September 1, 1938, of which copies in original and translation are enclosed,31 from which it will be noted that the Foreign Office keenly regrets that, for the present, it is obliged to maintain the existing rule. The Foreign Office emphasizes that its diplomatic archives are open to the French public only up to the year 1877, and that the Commission charged, under the auspices of the Ministry, with the publication of diplomatic documents, has restricted its activities to the beginning of the World War. It notes that the American public, which is able to consult much more recent French documents, enjoys a greater privilege.
The decision announced in the enclosure, of course, is in line with the sentiments expressed by Mr. Massigli, Director of Political Affairs at the Foreign Office, in a recent conversation with the Counselor of the Embassy,32 a memorandum of which was enclosed in the Embassy’s despatch No. 2873, of August 27, 1938.31
In view of the considered opinion expressed by the Foreign Office in the present Note, it is doubted that further representations on this subject would be effective at the present time, but the Embassy will await the Department’s instructions in this regard.
Respectfully yours,
Counselor of Embassy