Office of the Historian

Paris Peace Conf. 182/1

Memorandum by the Secretary of State2

undated

Queries

How far should the United States take part in the determination of European boundaries?

How far should the United States take part in the redistribution of colonial possession?

Should the United States go further than to approve or disapprove an agreed boundary on any other ground than that it contains an element of future discord?

Should the basis of territorial distribution be race, language, religion or previous political affiliation?

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Where two or more countries have political claims to a particular territory, as in Macedonia, what should be the basis of settlement? If it is determined that the preponderance of a particular nationality in the population is controlling prima facie, how far should conquest or enforced colonization affect such basis? (This might apply to Alsace-Lorraine, Schleswig-Holstein and the region about Dantzig.)

Should colonial possessions be guaranteed to the power holding them without a limitation as to the character of the government, commercial freedom, and economic opportunity to other nations?

  1. The original of this undated memorandum is in Secretary Lansing’s hand and is accompanied by other manuscript memoranda on subjects for consideration. The latter are not printed.↩