500.A15A4 General Committee/365: Telegram
The Chargé in Germany ( Gordon ) to the Secretary of State
[Received May 15—12:20 a.m.]
78. Department’s 53, May 14, 1 p.m. As I indicated over the telephone the purpose of convoking the Reichstag is to give the Chancellor [Page 140] an opportunity to expound Germany’s foreign policy in general with special reference to the disarmament problem. He presumably wishes to make some answer to recent speeches of Lord Hailsham87 and Paul-Boncour.88
After some probable reference to the necessity of establishing a basis of international confidence prior to the assembling of the World Economic Conference, he will doubtless turn to the Disarmament Conference and contend that although Germany has recognized that the MacDonald plan has useful elements it has been vitiated through the failure of the powers to give some practical expression to Germany’s right to equality, and he may even add, to her security. He may then indicate that Germany is ready to accept in principle the standardization of armies to be worked out over a reasonable period of time and to insisting upon samples only of weapons now prohibited to her (Davis’ 119, May 12, 3 p.m., to the Department). I venture to add however that I have been able to observe no indications of readiness to accept the principle of reckoning her semi-military organization as effectives.
The foregoing is necessarily speculative. Only a handful of people really know what will happen next Wednesday, and the same applies to the trend of the Government which there is some reason to believe is still fluctuating.
Will telegraph later today if I can secure further information modi-ficative of the foregoing.