Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1931-03-08

possible way to relieve you of unneces-
sary burdens, but of course to leave
you with all the authority necessary to
secure the best results from your forces
and TO supply all the support and as
sistance we possibly can.
las the American troops in France
become more and more numerous and
the battle initiative on some parts OF
the front passes to you, the purely
military part Of your task will neces-
sarily take more and more of your time,
and both the President and want to
feel that the planning and executing OF
military undertakings has your personal
consideration and that your mind is
free for that as far as possible.
THE American people think OF you
as their 'fighting general and / want
them to have the idea more and more
brought home TO them. For these rea-
sons, it seems to me that If some plan
could be devised by which you would
be free from any necessity OF giving at
tention TO services of supply 1t would
help and one plan Is that direction
which suggested itself was to send Gen
Goethals over TO take charge OF the
services Of supply. establishing a direct
relationship between him and Washing
ton and allowing you to rely upon him
Just as you would rely upon the supply
departments OF the War Department II
your military operations we're being
conducted in America, instead Of In
/ France.
such a plan would place Gen. Goe-
thals rather in a coordinate than a
subordinate relationship 70 you. but Of
course IL would transfer ali Of the sup
ply responsibilities from you 10 him,
and you could then forget about docks,
railroads, storage houses and all the
other vast industrial undertakings 10
which up TO now you have given good
deal of your time and, as you know we
all think, with superb success. I would
be very glad to know what you think
about this suggestion.
Use Gen. Bliss More.
"I realize that France is very far
from the United States and that our
reliance upon cables makes very diff
fcult means OF communication, so you
may prefer to have the supply system
as one of your responsibilities. / would
be grateful II you would think the prob
lem over and tell me quite frankly just
what you think on the subject The
President and I will consider your reply
together, and you may rely upon our
|. being guided only by confidence in your
| Judgment and the deep desire to aid
| you.
lone other aspect Of your burdens
| the President feels can be somewhat
| lightened is by a larger use Of Cen
| Bliss as diplomatic intermediary. The
| President is adopting as definite rule
of action an insistence upon inter-
allied military questions being referred
to the permanent military representa-
tives. Our difficulty here has been that
| the British representative would present
something for consideration without the
! knowledge Of the French, or the French
without the knowledge of the British,
and when we took the matter up for
| decision we would sometimes find that
the other nation felt aggrieved at not
being consulted.
"As each of the allied nations Is
represented at Versailles, the President
is now uniformly saying with regard To
all inter allied military questions that
their presentation to him should come
through the permanent military rep
| resentatives who, IN q way, are a kind
OF staff for Gen. Foch and undoubtedly
maintain such close relations with him
| as to make any proposition which they
consider one upon which his views are
ascertained.
LAS the President deals in matters OF
military diplomacy with Gen. Bliss, II
would seem that he could with pro-
prtety relieve you of some part of the
conferences and consultations which In
the early days you were obliged to have
with the British War Office and the
French War ONCE, thus simplifying the