File No. 861.00/756½
The Special Representative ( House) to the Secretary of State
[Received December 3, 3.10 a.m.]
For the President and the Secretary of State:
There have been long and frequent discussions as to Russia but the result has not been satisfactory to me. I wanted a clear declaration along the lines of my cable to you of Friday.1 England was passively willing, France indifferently against it, Italy actively so. They all were willing to embody the [Russian] Ambassador’s suggested [texts?] if certain additions were made to which I could not agree. It was decided finally that each power should send its own answer to its Ambassador at Petrograd, the substance of each answer to be that the Allies were willing to reconsider their war aims in conjunction with Russia and as soon as she had a stable government with whom they could act. The Russian Ambassador at Paris believes it of great importance that you send a message to Russia through Francis or otherwise letting them know of the disinterested motives of the United States and of its desire to bring a disorderly world into a fraternity of nations for the good of all and for the aggrandizement of none.
- Foreign Relations, 1917, Supplement 2, vol. i, telegram dated Nov. 30.↩