500.C1112/130: Telegram
The Ambassador in the United Kingdom ( Bingham ) to the Secretary of State
[Received May 14—2:25 p.m.]
287. Your 167, May 10, 11 a.m.31 The British authorities were pleased with the interim report which Leith-Ross was able to obtain at the March meeting in Geneva particularly in that attempts to limit the inquiry to colonial raw materials were defeated and the two subcommittees [Page 816] of supply, and purchase and payment which were set up must depend for their data on the statistical findings of Loveday’s section of the League. These subcommittees are expected to meet about the middle of June and it is hoped that the Committee itself will be able to report about the first of July.
The attitude of the British authorities is at the present time largely governed by the fact that they bear the major responsibility for the undertaking of this inquiry; they are more concerned about avoiding a failure than about achieving success. They hope that a number of minority reports will not be submitted but that the Committee after deliberation will be able to make some definite proposal of limited scope. As far as can be ascertained this inquiry is at the moment receiving no active consideration here but I rather gather that the British may favor a proposal of limited scope in the direction of the open door which in one of my conversations it was emphasized “would not be very important economically but would have a good psychological effect.”