882.01 Foreign Control/191: Telegram
The Secretary of State to the Consul at Geneva (Gilbert)
23. For Reber. Department’s telegrams No. 9 January 13, 6 p.m. and No. 17, January 20, 1 p.m. In discussing the situation with the Messrs. Firestone on January 22, an agreement was reached as to the advisability of leaving for later determination the disputed points in the draft already submitted to you (specifically paragraphs 2, 9 and 10 as enumerated in telegram No. 9), in order that you, in informal discussion with the members of the International Committee and Hines and Howe, in response to request by the Committee for expression of opinion, might support identical general principles as to the most effective plan for Liberian rehabilitation. Thus the matters covered in the three paragraphs cited above, all of which come under the heading of technical procedure, could be held completely in abeyance pending decision of the basic question of a general plan within the framework of the report of the experts.
The Department does not desire you to advocate the remainder of the draft as such (in the sense that it might be identified as the American plan or the Finance Corporation plan), but merely to support the general principles appearing therein as items, explicit or implied, drawn from the recommendations of the experts, whose report will of course have to form the basis for such action as the International Committee may take, presumably through a recommendation to the Council.