Paris Peace Conf. 184.1/5
The Chief of the Section of Territorial, Economic and Political Intelligence ( Mezes ) to the Secretary of the Commission to Negotiate Peace ( Grew )
[
Paris
,] December
21, 1918.
Would the following memorandum express your idea of the sense of our conference of this afternoon:
- 1)
- There is to be complete control over the employment of the military personnel assigned to the Commission by the Commission itself [Page 185] through its Secretary. The following proposal simply arranges for the orderly and effective integration of that part of the staff borrowed from the army in so far as this integration is needed for the smooth running of purely military arrangements which the Commission may wish to have made.
- (2)
- To this end it is proposed to designate General Churchill as officer in
charge of military personnel and to instruct him to report to
you in that capacity. Having been thus designated and instructed
as to your wishes, General
Churchill can then be held responsible for the
following:
- a)
- That military personnel and materiel now at the disposition of the Commission be so utilized as to best serve the interests of the Commission.
- b)
- That additional personnel and materiel be obtained and installed promptly as required.
- c)
- That all contact with the military establishment in France and in the United States be concentrated in a single office, so that there may be no conflict of authority or of purpose.
- 3)
- In outlining the above it has been kept in mind that your thought seemed to be that such a plan would avoid possible question between the arrangements for securing help from the military authorities by the Inquiry and the arrangements already made by yourself with officers detailed by General Harts or by General Bliss.
- 4)
- If the suggestions contained herein are not acceptable, in no matter how small a degree, please modify in whatever manner seems advisable, since we are merely trying to put on record our common viewpoint regarding the matter.
S. E. Mezes