Office of the Historian

500.A15A4 General Committee/716: Telegram

The Ambassador in Germany (Dodd) to the Acting Secretary of State

Berlin, December 22, 1933—4 p.m.
[Received December 22—1:35 p.m.]

213. My 209, December 19, 6 p.m. British Ambassador here after conference with Neurath showed me today British Government’s reply to Hitler’s proposition on armament.

The Foreign Minister indicated sympathetic attitude toward the following English suggestions:

1.
That 300,000 regulars be reduced by a third.
2.
That details as to amount and character of defensive weapons be stated.
3.
That assurances be given that various organizations now being trained were not to be allowed to arm or be trained for war.

The British Ambassador then said that Herriot was blocking all efforts at negotiation largely because of his dislike of Fascisti principles, that Sir John Simon was trying to persuade the French, and that after Christmas he would confer with Mussolini.

Religious obstruction82 and under-cover political difficulties compel regime here to seek easement of foreign relations.

Dodd
  1. For correspondence concerning religious intolerance in Germany, see vol. ii, pp. 292 ff.↩