Progress almost equally swift was made by the Cuthell Board in securing a settlement of the American claims against France. At first there was no official French agency empowered to make such a settlement. Mr. Cuthell and his assistants proceeded immediately to Paris after making the British agreement and importuned the French Government to designate a representative competent to conclude a settlement. There they were joined by Messrs. Charles B. Shelton, William Fisher, John H. Ray, Jr., and Harry A. Fisher, who brought with them from Washington the formulated statements of various American claims against the French. After several days’ delay Premier Clemenceau appointed the French Liquidation Commission, headed by M. Édouard de Billy, who had been with the French High Commission in Washington during the war and was therefore familiar with the French contracts in the United States. To France the War Department had sold picric acid, cotton linters, smokeless powder, airplane lumber, and Liberty engines. The French liability in these cases was finally fixed at $95,968,561.87, and a formal agreement admitting the liability was signed on May 29, 1919. There were other considerable claims against France, the statements of which had not yet been prepared. Later (September 9, 1919) Mr. Cuthell came to an agreement with M. Casenave, minister plenipotentiary of France in the United States, whereby the French admitted an additional liability of $64,910,352.92. Of this sum, $38,000,000 represented ocean freight charges upon war supplies bought by France in the United States and carried to France in American army cargo transports. Two additional settlements with France, one terminating the French contract with J. G. White & Company for raw materials for airplane manufacture and the other terminating the French contract with the General Vehicle Company for the production of Gnome rotary airplane engines, increased the French liability by $2,117,785.34. These settlements were made in France by Mr. Monte Appel, chief assistant to Mr. Cuthell. The total liability arising from the American war business of France was therefore $162,996,700.13. This sum went into the general settlement agreement made with the French by the United States Liquidation Commission.