724.3415/4152: Telegram
The Secretary of State to the Consul at Geneva (Gilbert)
96. Your 251, September 20, 11 a.m., last paragraph.55 You are authorized to make, orally and informally, the clarifying statement to Avenol which you suggest based upon the contents of Department’s 87, August 30, 4 p.m. and the statement further contained in the first sentence of the Department’s 91, September 18, noon.56
You should, of course, make it perfectly clear that the position assumed by this Government is due solely to its belief that as a practical question the existing negotiations offer a favorable opportunity for success and that it is in no sense due to any desire to minimize the importance or the helpful character of the League’s negotiations. If the negotiations now being conducted by Argentina, Brazil, and the United States, in their present form or enlarged in scope by the additional participation of other American Republics, prove to be fruitless, the League will, of course, later be warranted in resuming actively its previous negotiations.