500.A15A4/2301
The Ambassador in Germany ( Dodd ) to the Secretary of State
[Received October 28.]
Sir: I have the honor to refer to my despatch No. 211 of October 17, 1933,4 reporting evidences of renewed dissension within the Nazi Party, [Page 288] and suggesting that this might have been a contributory element in the German decision to leave Geneva last Saturday, and to set forth herewith what at present writing seems to have been the main determining consideration in that respect.
A great deal has been loosely spoken and written here to the effect that Sir John Simon’s speech before the Bureau of the Conference on the morning of Saturday, October 14, was the immediate occasion for the German decision to quit the Conference and the League. This, however, does not seem reasonable for there was scarcely time physically for the speech to be digested here before the decision was announced, the Government’s proclamation issued, and Hitler’s speech delivered.
What seems more plausible is the view that Sir John Simon on Thursday, October 12, told Nadolny in private conversation5 (1) that the British Government was in agreement that there should be a four-year period of control before the reaching of any accord as to actual disarmament on the part of the so-called highly-armed states or as to the amount thereof; and (2) that the equality of rights, accorded in principle in December 1932, could not be applied in the same measure to present-day Germany under a regime so different from that of last year.
Nadolny, as the Department is aware (see my telegram No. 165 of October 13,6 last paragraph) flew to Berlin early Friday morning and the Cabinet, or fractions thereof, was in constant session for some twelve hours. These statements of Sir John Simon to Nadolny would appear to have determined the German Government to decide to break with Geneva but to withhold the promulgation of this decision until the next day on the remote chance that Sir John Simon in his public speech before the Bureau on Saturday morning would recede from the position he had outlined to Nadolny.
Doubtless the American Delegation to the Disarmament Conference will have been able to give the Department a fuller report of the developments leading up to the abrupt German action, but I give the foregoing as a reasonable analysis of the situation which has current credence here.
I may add that this version is largely corroborated by von Neurath’s speech to the foreign press on the evening of Monday, October 16.
Since dictating the foregoing, news has reached here—in a fuller and more accurate manner than through the German press—of Sir John Simon’s radio speech in London on Tuesday night, October 17. In this he refuted the statement made by von Neurath in his speech [Page 289] made the day before that Simon had incorrectly represented the German position regarding disarmament and that Germany had not made fresh demands at the last minute, and stated that he (Sir John Simon) was able and ready to cite chapter and verse to prove that the Germans had made such last minute demands.
However the exact truth may lie between these two sharply conflicting assertions, the sequence of events as set forth above might still prove to be the correct one, inasmuch as whatever Sir John Simon said to Nadolny on Thursday, October 12, must have covered the existence or non-existence of these new German demands.
Please read this despatch in conjunction with my despatches Nos. 2117 and 215, of October 17, going forward in this same pouch.
Respectfully yours,