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curbed. He urged Bolling to cable to the United States requesting the immediate sending of additional destroyers to help stop the undersea ships.

To revert to France:- After many fruitless meetings and discussions during which the French spent their main effort in attempting to force us to purchase 20,000 airplanes and 30,000 engines from them and materials from nobody else, we devoted our main efforts towards trying to get the French to ship certain sample aircraft to the United States (the British having already done so) in order to conserve time by having the desirable sample aircraft transported while we were talking. The French finally promised they would ship to the United State on the following day, each aircraft, aircraft engine, and aircraft accessory under consideration. Thus, on July 6, 1917, we cabled the United States to expect samples which would be shipped by the following boat. By July 7th, it developed the French had not started to ship any material to us, and apparently did not intend to ship any material. Once more, they were devoting their energies to attempting to get us to sign an order for the purchase of all our aircraft equipment in France.

As already mentioned, when the Italians had previously invited us to visit their country, we felt that we did not have time to do so. After spending ten fruitless days in Paris trying to get information and action from the French, we were forced to the conclusion that the only move which would make the French assist us must be some drastic action on our part. Therefore, when the Italian mission again returned to Paris, this time with its ranks reinforced with more outstanding personalities including a direct representative of the King of Italy, we promised to leave immediately on a visit to Italy. We expressed to the French our regret over the delay which had taken place in Paris. We said that we were proceeding to Italy to study that which the Italians had to present. We further asserted that we felt the delays in France would force us to make our selection of airplanes to be built by our government among British or Italian types - or both.

What a thunder of condemnation fell upon our heads from the French press! Articles appeared in the French newspapers damning the individual members of the Bolling mission, alleging that the industrialists of the Bolling mission were not interested in anything except spending American millions in American factories, stating that the United States had six hundred million dollars to spend for aviation, and that the industrialists of the mission expected to spend all of this money in the United States, claiming that America should spend this money in France,

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