File No. 763.72/7890a
President Wilson to the Special Representative ( House)1
Please take the position that we not only accede to the plan for a single war council but insist on it, but think it does not go far enough. We can no more take part in the war successfully without such a council than we can lend money without the board Crosby went over to join. The war council will, I assume, eventually take the place of such conferences as you went over to take part in and I hope that you will consider remaining to take part in at any rate the first deliberations and formulations of plans. Baker and I are agreed that Bliss should be our military member. I am happy the conference is to be postponed until the recalcitrant parliaments have settled to their senses.
Please insist in the conference on the imperative necessity of getting wheat first from Australia then from the Argentine and last from us. Taylor has the facts and they are of the gravest significance. McCormick will show you despatch from Jones. I felt obliged on principle to take the position therein stated. It is based not only on principle but on the facts and advice contained in the confidential memorandum brought over by Reading and is all the more dictated by good sense in view of the present critical situation.