463.00 R 29/167: Telegram
The Chargé in France (Whitehouse) to the Secretary of State
[Received 6:50 p.m.]
115. Your No. 76, February 7, 2 p.m. The Conference of Ambassadors will not reply to the Reparation Commission until I have received your instructions.
From Department’s previous telegrams, I have understood that this decision is more or less in accordance with our interests, except for wording of answer to question (c), which Department may desire be modified along lines of Logan’s telegram L–336 (January 27), paragraph 5, by adding statement that any financial arrangement of bonds is to be made only in agreement with United States.
It seems to me that, in view of answer to question (a) that United States should be consulted, it will be difficult for Allies to refuse to accept modification along that line. If this prove to be so, I suggest that it would be better to wait until the Reparation Commission has received this official communication before any statement is made about our general attitude on this question. Should Conference raise difficulties, however, it might be advisable to have statement ready to present, thus immediately throwing question wide open and causing the Ambassadors to say that they would have to refer the matter to their Governments.
I have consulted Mr. Hill,10 and he concurs with this view.
- Ralph Waldo Snowden Hill, of the Office of the Solicitor for the Department of State, had been sent to Paris to assist Colonel Logan.↩