793.94/2042: Telegram
The Secretary of State to the Consul at Geneva (Gilbert)
83. Your 172, October 11, 6 p.m. You should explain to Drummond that the American Foreign Service officers who are my observers have been trained especially for service respectively in China and Japan and are assigned to posts in each of those two countries. They have been sent by me to Manchuria on a delicate mission of observation and will report to this Government the facts as they see them. Of necessity their reports are arriving piecemeal in the process of assembling the facts, while they themselves move about to continue their observations and to send me data as gathered. To disclose from day to day what they report would increase the difficulty of their task, might place them in peril, would confront them with an unnecessary obstacle in obtaining a maximum amount of accurate data, and might impair their ultimate value in the countries where they are serving. It is my opinion that material received from various sources may perfectly well be compared without the sources being labeled or disclosed. Reports by different observers doubtless will agree in some particulars, disagree in others. A disclosure of the sources to numerous groups, such as the League Council, would tend to encourage controversy. Consequently I feel that, in the light of the considerations given above and because my observers are working primarily for this Government’s information, I am, in transmitting it to Drummond for his confidential use without disclosing the source, going as far for the present as I am warranted in doing.