812.79600/1–2645

Memorandum of Conversation, by the Assistant Chief of the Division of Western European Affairs (Bonbright)

Mr. Lacoste, Counselor of the French Embassy, called this afternoon at my request.

I told him that since he had impressed on me yesterday the urgency with which his Government viewed the Clipperton Island problem, I had been asked to give him an interim report. I said that as he knew, we had received a formal note from his Government on the subject and that this note and their specific request for a vessel to proceed to Clipperton Island from Mexico had to be considered together. I told him that the whole question was under review and that I hoped we would be in a position to give him something more definite within the next few days. I expressed the hope that in the meantime he would keep the lid on his own people so that we would not be faced with an incident. He fully agreed, and assured me that this would be done.

Lacoste was very friendly throughout. He told me personally that he had been disappointed when he learned that his Government had written us a formal note on the subject. He felt that a note was unnecessary and that in any event it might have been worded somewhat differently. He took the line that the whole matter was a result of excessive zeal on the part of the military, and that he did not for [Page 791] a moment believe we had ulterior motives or any designs on French territory.