500.A15A4 Steering Committee/23: Telegram
The Acting Chairman of the American Delegation (Gibson) to the Secretary of State
[Received 10:30 p.m.]
304. At the meeting of the Bureau this afternoon it was decided on Henderson’s proposal that a meeting of the General Commission would take place on the afternoon of July 7th at 4 o’clock for the [Page 267] purpose of permitting those states which have not as yet had the opportunity of expressing their views with regard to the Hoover proposals to do so. The President announced that three states have already signified their desire to speak in this connection and that he anticipated more. The President then stated that in his opinion it was advisable to approach the plenary session with a definite objective in view, to take stock of what had actually been accomplished in the work of the Conference up to this point and to bring this phase of our work to a conclusion. At this juncture Sir John Simon suggested that at the close of the declarations concerning the President’s proposals a possible resolution might be introduced in the General Commission which would contain the following three points:
- 1.
- A welcome by the Conference to the Hoover proposals which have stimulated the Conference and indicated the path of a broad approach to the problem.
- 2.
- A survey of the results actually accomplished by the Conference up to this point.
- 3.
- The consideration of the future work of the Conference.
I gave Sir John Simon’s suggestion my support and Paul-Boncour declared himself likewise in full agreement.
Motta made an eloquent plea to the larger powers to unite their efforts on as large a measure of agreement as possible which effort he felt would be acceptable to the smaller states and an encouragement to the world. Madariaga then spoke of results which had not been obtained by the Conference up to this point and advocated negotiation and continued endeavor at Geneva to find common accord. The President asked Sir John Simon to get in touch with as many other delegations as were interested and to prepare a draft resolution along the lines which Sir John has suggested.
The meeting proceeded along lines which seem entirely satisfactory to us. In particular I was not obliged to take any part in the debate beyond acquiescence in Simon’s statement. Various speakers brought out one by one spontaneously practically all the points and suggestions that we would have covered. It now remains to draft the formula in appropriate phraseology.