500.A15A4/1891: Telegram
The Chargé in Great Britain (Atherton) to the Secretary of State
[Received May 18—12:28 p.m.]
132. Increasing tension as to the Continental situation was evidenced here last week as a result of German tactics at Geneva and Von Papen’s speech.9 The President’s message of Tuesday is increasingly and whole-heartedly welcome in that it allays this feeling. As the Prime Minister pointed out in his Tuesday evening’s speech, the United States will not remain indifferent to the European situation.
Hitler’s speech yesterday, although generally acknowledged to have been drafted for him, has further tended to allay apprehension in the public mind. The official mind, however, is unwilling to accept this German statement as a declaration of policy unless it is followed by confirmatory action at Geneva; outstandingly by early acceptance of the MacDonald plan on transforming the Reichswehr without any demand for an extension of time. Consequently, since the President’s message of Tuesday and Hitler’s speech of yesterday attention here is focused on Geneva; on the forthcoming attitude of the American delegation and whether Germany will by her attitude give proof of a “genuine” acceptance of the MacDonald plan.
Copy Geneva.
- Delivered by Franz von Papen, German Vice Chancelor, at Muenster, May 13, before a combined Nazi and Stahlhelm audience; it was a reply to Lord Hailsham’s speech of May 11 in the House of Lords which carried a threat of sanctions against Germany.↩