500.A15A4/1871: Telegram
The Chargé in Germany (Gordon) to the Secretary of State
[Received May 17—10 a.m.]
80. The full text of the President’s message is carried on the front page of the entire German press this morning with the exception of the Nazi Voelhischer Beobachter which printed it on an inside page without a word of comment.
The initial comment on the whole is meager, confirming the information given me last night that the Ministry of Propaganda had given instructions that comment of any substance should be withheld until after the Chancellor delivers his speech this afternoon.
The message was widely acclaimed as an event of historical importance dictated by sense of responsibility.
[Page 149]The press in general welcomed the message as being in line with Germany’s own policy though certain journals felt that the proposals did not go far enough. For instance, the Vossische Zeitung, declared that much depended on how the proposal for a reduction of armaments would work out in practice, saying that what was demanded of Germany was clear but what was demanded of the other countries would be known only when the figures were definitely fixed; while the Deutsche Allgeimine Zeitung regretted that President Roosevelt had not drawn practical conclusions from the French thesis which he had adopted, namely, that disarmament centered upon weapons of attack.
This latter paper went on to say that the President’s three points represented only a beginning and did not establish equality; on the other hand the Taeglische Rundschau said that the message was an official recognition of the principle of Germany’s equality status which England and France had of late rejected.
In some quarters it was feared that the message might be regarded by “malicious political observers” as pressure on Hitler while Hugenberg’s Lohalanzeiger declared that President Roosevelt’s admonitions could not well be regarded as addressed particularly to Germany as she had always stressed her desire for peace.
The hope was expressed that the President’s initiative might be more successful than President Wilson’s intercessions in Europe. While most journals felt that the President’s action meant the abandonment by America of the policy of noninterference in Europe the Centrist Germania could not view the message in this light.
Political significance was attached to the fact that President Roosevelt’s admonition was addressed to all and that it stressed the importance of disarmament for the success of the World Economic Conference.
Some journals saw in the fact that the message was addressed also to Soviet Russia, an indication of impending recognition of that country by America.2
- For correspondence relating to the recognition of the Soviet Union by the United States, see vol. ii, pp. 778 ff.↩