711.4112Anti-War/19: Telegram
The Secretary of State to the Ambassador in Great Britain (Houghton)
104. Your No. 88, April 27, 2 p.m. I appreciate greatly your thoughtful message to me. Your two suggestions are excellent and I have already acted upon one of them. Although my intention had been to speak wholly extemporaneously at the dinner of the American Society of International Law on Saturday, April 28, I decided after reading your telegram to use in my speech practically word for word that part of my No. 97, April 23, 5 p.m., containing the six numbered paragraphs.42 The last sentence of paragraph 2 in regard to the German position I, of course, omitted. The press has commented very favorably on this explanation of my position.
I agree with you thoroughly on the position you took in discussing the anti-war treaty with Chamberlain. I hope that you will be able to impress on him the desirability of an approach to this question from a broad point of view, not a narrow legalistic one. Our Ambassador in Italy has telegraphed that the French have suggested to Mussolini that question of compatibility of my proposed treaty for renunciation of war with the League of Nations Covenant and the Locarno treaties, et cetera, be referred to a commission of jurists [Page 42] representing the principal Locarno powers and Japan.43 I hope that this proposal will not meet with general acceptance. It seems absurd to me that the question of whether the nations of the world should renounce war in their relations with one another should be referred for determination to a commission of jurists. Such a proposal would meet with no popular sympathy in this country, I am sure.
The text of the German reply to my proposal of April 13 arrived from Berlin Saturday.44 It seems to be a wholehearted acceptance. I am not telegraphing it to you as I understand that the text will be published in the newspapers tomorrow morning.