File No. 763.72Su/13½
The Ambassador in France ( Sharp) to the Secretary of State
[Received February 3, 11.27 a.m.]
3135. Frazier reports to me as follows:
At the final meeting of the Supreme War Council today the French, British and Italian Prime Ministers drafted the following statement of the labors of the conference for simultaneous publication in Paris, London and Rome on Monday the 4th instant, but not to be released before:
The Supreme War Council gave the most careful consideration to the recent utterances of the German Chancellor and of the Austro-Hungarian Minister for Foreign Affairs but was unable to find in them any real approximation to the moderate conditions laid down by all the Allied Governments. This conviction was only deepened by the impression made by the contrast between the professed idealistic aims with which the Central Powers entered upon the present negotiations at Brest-Litovsk and the now openly disclosed plans of conquest and spoliation. Under the circumstances the Supreme War Council decided that the only immediate task before them lay in the prosecution with the utmost vigor and in the closest and most effective cooperation of the military effort of the Allies until such time as the pressure of that effort shall have brought about in the enemy Governments and peoples a change of temper which would justify the hope of the conclusion of peace on terms which would not involve the abandonment in the face of an aggressive and unrepentant militarism of all the principles of freedom, justice and the respect for the law of nations which the Allies are resolved to vindicate.
The decisions taken by the Supreme War Council in pursuance of this conclusion embraced not only the general military policy to be carried out by the Allies in all the principal theaters of war, [Page 71] but more particularly the closer and more effective coordination, under the Council, of all the efforts of the powers engaged in the struggle against the Central Powers. The functions of the Council itself were enlarged, and the principles of unity of policy and action, initiated at Rapallo in November last,1 received still further concrete and practical development. On all these questions a complete agreement was arrived at, after the fullest discussion with regard both to the policy to be pursued and to the measures for execution.
The Allies are united in heart and will, not by any hidden designs, but by their open resolve to defend civilization against an unscrupulous and brutal attempt at domination. This unanimity, confirmed by a unanimity not less complete both as regards the military policy to be pursued and as regards the measures needed for its execution, will enable them to meet the violence of the enemy’s onset with firm and quiet confidence, with the utmost energy and with the knowledge that neither their strength nor their steadfastness can be shaken.
The splendid soldiers of our free democracies have won their place in history by their immeasurable valor. Their magnificent heroism, and the no less noble endurance with which our civilian populations are bearing their daily burden of trial and suffering, testify to the strength of those principles of freedom which will crown the military success of the Allies with the glory of a great moral triumph.