711.5112 France/43: Telegram

The Secretary of State to the Chargé in France ( Whitehouse )

[Paraphrase]

209. You may confidentially and orally inform Briand that last week Mr. Herrick personally delivered to me the draft text referred to in your telegram No. 260 of June 22 and discussed the subject with me. You may say that I am carefully considering the matter but still feel that conversations of the nature indicated in my telegram No. 174 of June 11 are appropriate and desirable in the first instance and that it seems wise to me to await such conversations, although I sincerely regret the delay. With President Coolidge and most of the Cabinet members out of Washington and with both the American and French Ambassadors absent from their posts, obviously there are serious practical difficulties in the way of anything more during the next few weeks than a conscientious study of the proposal. Of course such a study will be made. I wish, however, to assure Briand that I deeply appreciate his high motive in making the proposal and that I believe it entitled to serious and sympathetic study.

Kellogg