862t.01/29: Telegram
The Secretary of State to the Observer on the Rhineland High Commission (Noyes)32
Your April 4. Referring your final sentence Secretary of War states that if reference to massing of reinforcements means the massing of French troops in American area, War Department believes that answer should be a decided and positive negative. If the question has to do with disposition of American forces, War Department considers that General Allen should be given a free hand to dispose of his forces solely for purpose which he has been instructed to serve, namely the policing and preservation of peace and order in the area under his control, and that he should not re-dispose his forces in order to participate in any action contemplated by French military authorities.
This telegram for your information since matter is purely military. It is understood that Secretary of War has issued his instructions direct to General Allen.
- Via the Embassy in France as no. 721.↩