500.A15A4 General Committee/694: Telegram
The Ambassador in Germany (Dodd) to the Acting Secretary of State
[Received December 14—9: 30 a.m.]
203. Your 147, December 11, 1 p.m. Reference section 1, the following is a brief summary of translation of note62 addressed by the Chancellor to the British Ambassador (full report by mail).
In view of apparent unwillingness of highly armed state to disarm the most practical method at present of rejecting any appeal to force—a step for which German Government is ready—is to conclude series of 10-year non-aggression pacts to accompany disarmament arrangements. Germany, however, cannot consider disarmament negotiations until equality has been conceded but would be prepared to make moderate use of equality of rights once principle conceded. Expressed in figures Germany must have 300,000 army as defense against 1,200,000 of France and her allies with their 9,600,000 reserves. The absorption of Reichswehr in new German army would require a few years. The political character of the S. A. and S. S. 2,500,000 strong which compose barrier against communism to be subject to proof by international commission which would also control other armaments. Germany [Page 336] renounces offensive and rejects idea of “sample weapons” but it must have those essential for defense, e. g. lowest limit for caliber of artillery should be not less than 15 cm. Reference sections 2 and 5, I had not for a moment supposed that United States Government would place any pressure upon France; merely that it might be possible in the course of informal inquiries as to French views to show an interest such as our experiences in 1812 and 1917 would seem to warrant and incidentally to extend moderating counsel in favor of negotiating.
Reference sections 3 and 4, the claim of Hitler that the highly armed nations will not at present disarm appeared to me correct. The importance of his demand for arms equality at least for the time being lies mainly in its appeal to the inferiority complex of his own people of which he has made such use in the past and which with a few concessions might now be turned to pacific ends. The present German army is concededly most efficient. Its reorganization would require some time and might conceivably be the subject of further negotiations.
Reference section 6, I did not intend to convey any impression of inter-dependence of policies but merely to take advantage of the conjuncture to put forward a personal and informal suggestion which I felt sure could not compromise the government and might in the future be helpful to our Far Eastern policy. I had recently heard disquieting reports from different sources as to situation in the Far East and my colleague65 who was formerly Governor General of Dutch East Indies observed to me that unless the United States and Great Britain acted together in Far East his country would lose its empire.
Code text mailed Geneva.