500.A15A4/1247: Telegram
The Acting Chairman of the American Delegation (Gibson) to the Secretary of State
[Received July 6—1 p.m.]
306. MacDonald telephoned this morning asking that Davis and I go to see him at Lausanne at 10 o’clock. He received us with Simon and we went over some of the ground Davis touched on in his telephone conversation yesterday afternoon to the effect that the British Government was under serious criticism in the House for failure to make clear its position in regard to the President’s proposal, that Baldwin was insistent on the necessity for making a full statement not later than tomorrow (Thursday) afternoon, that he and Simon had been in constant contact with the Cabinet in the formulation of a statement which they hoped would not complicate the situation but would on the contrary relieve feeling in England and make it possible for them to go ahead with us. He said he could not yet go into details with us because the Cabinet had not yet taken a decision on various points submitted by MacDonald and Simon, that Cabinet was meeting this morning and that its decision would probably reach him some time in the afternoon, that we would be put in possession of all the facts as soon as they were available. He said he wanted it very clearly understood that they were not putting forth anything in the nature of a rival plan and that their observations would have to do only with alternative methods of dealing with parts of the plan especially reduction in part but that they expected to give a wholehearted indorsement in principles and general conception of the President’s plan.
MacDonald said they had given a good deal of thought to the question of a statement in the General Commission at the same time that Baldwin was speaking in the House of Commons, that while they would be guided by our wishes in this matter they felt that this might lead to a series of second speeches by the delegations which had already spoken in regard to the President’s plan and might even be interpreted as an attempt to start criticism, that for that reason they felt it was better if possible to avoid any further statement by the British delegation in the General Commission and to confine themselves [Page 272] to transmitting a copy of Baldwin’s statement to the President of the Conference for his information and such disposal as he deemed wise. We concurred in this procedure as calculated to expedite the work. Simon went over with us a very rough draft of a resolution which he prepared as a result of our talk with him yesterday. It embodies practically all that we had in our draft and in some respects is more downright in expressing approval of the President’s plan. He is coming to Geneva today to work with other delegates and is very hopeful of being able to wind up this session with the adoption of the resolution next week. In view of the precarious situation of the Herriot Government this seems particularly urgent as it would be most unfortunate if there were another French Cabinet crisis which prevented us from adopting such a resolution as a preliminary to adjournment.