Henry L. Stimson Private Papers
Memorandum by the Secretary of State of a Conversation With the German Chargé (Leitner)
Dr. Leitner came in to tell me that he had received an answer to my first message to the German Government, conveyed through Mr. Lohmann.24 In general he said that the Government was thoroughly pleased and satisfied with everything that had been done.
He then said, however, that there had evidently been some difficulty in understanding some conflicting reports that had come in and asked my permission to ask me two or three questions. I agreed. He asked me:
- (1)
- Whether I had asked France to act as my agent in conveying the message to Russia or whether she would do it herself. I told him that I did not ask France to act as my agent but to act cooperatively with us and that I had called the matter to Mr. Claudel’s attention.
- (2)
- Whether it was true that the United States had only spoken directly to China. I said yes.
- (3)
- He said that Russia had conveyed to them the impression that France had not conveyed any message to Russia and he asked if I knew how it had been conveyed,—whether in Paris or Russia. I said I had to speak from recollection because I did not have with me the Aide Mémoire but my recollection was that M. Briand had conveyed it to the Russian Ambassador in Paris and had called in the Russian Ambassador.
I then told him that I had heard through our Ambassador in Berlin reports of attempts on the part of the Soviet Embassy to indicate to American newspaper men that there was trouble between France and America. I wished most emphatically to deny that and to say that M. Briand and I were acting in perfect cooperation.
I told him also that I had received official word from Dr. Wu today that the Russians had approached the Chinese Minister in Berlin to know whether they would deal directly and that the Chinese Government had answered them in the affirmative but had had no reply to that.
- Johann G. Lohmann, Secretary of the German Embassy.↩