500.C/1020: Telegram
The Consul General at Geneva (Tittmann) to the Secretary of State
[Received 1:52 p.m.]
107. I had an occasion to talk with Avenol today who told me that it was his intention gradually to reduce the staff of the League of Nations to about 40 persons, to close the main building and to move the offices into the Library. The Secretary General said that he himself would like to resign now but that he felt it his duty to remain under present circumstances. He emphatically denied rumors current in Geneva to the effect that he was preparing to turn over the League to the totalitarian states should they indicate a desire to make use of it or that as a corollary to this he was endeavoring to force the resignation of all British nationals in the Secretariat. Avenol of course realizes that the future disposition of the League and its buildings is unpredictable but that his task is to maintain a nucleus in being as long as possible.