711.62119/16: Telegram
The Commissioner at Berlin ( Dresel ) to the Secretary of State
[Received July 23—7 a.m.]
628. Following is text of transmitted letter handed me by Rosen2 today:
“Dear Mr. Dresel: I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of your letter of the 14th instant by which you forwarded me a confidential memorandum which you believe to be the substance of your instructions in regard to the possible methods for reaching a state of peace between the United States and Germany. In doing so you expressly state that the inquiry you are making is to be regarded as of an informal nature.
I have the honor transmit herewith a paper3 which shows the attitude taken by the Reichskabinett in respect to the observations contained in your memorandum.
As you expressly observe in your letter, that, the memorandum which you transmitted to me is in no sense the text of a message [Page 7] which you are directed to hand to the German Government, I wish it to be clearly understood that the enclosed paper is not to be regarded as an official communication to the Government of the United States, but merely as a statement on the contents of the memorandum handed over by you, made on the assumption that the text presented by you fully corresponds with the views of the American Government.
In transmitting the enclosed paper I request you to expressly call the attention of your Government to my foregoing remarks and to point out to it that the German Government starts from the assumption that the United States of America on its part will recognize the responsibilities which under the Treaty of Versailles are connected with the assertion of the rights, interests and advantages mentioned in your memorandum.
I further have the honor to observe that the German Government presumably will be required by the Constitution to have recourse at some juncture of the impending negotiations to the cooperation of the German legislative bodies.
I request that until further agreement my letter and the enclosed paper will enjoy the same confidential treatment which you wished to see applied to your memorandum. I remain, et cetera, (Signed) Rosen.”