Paris Peace Conf. 184/14
Dr. S. E. Mezes to the Secretary of State
[Received November 12.]
Dear Mr. Secretary: I had an opportunity coming up on the train yesterday to study the program we discussed in your office.34 It seems to me that it meets emergency needs quite thoroughly, but I find that in the section to be under my charge there is one omission that I hope can be supplied.
There is no place for Dr. Bowman, who as you know has acted and is still acting as our Executive Officer, and who therefore does not come in under divisional specialists, cartographers, or the library force. Dr. Bowman in addition to his valuable services to us is Director of the American Geographical Society, which has furnished us with our headquarters free of charge for the last year and has extended to us many courtesies. I should not feel that I could ask him to go or ask his trustees to approve of his going under the title of Confidential Clerk, and I am writing to ask if in lieu of that position there might not be substituted the position of Chief Territorial Specialist or that of Executive Officer, which Dr. Bowman now occupies. If his services should not be available our work would be very seriously embarrassed.
Believe me [etc.]