862.4016/412: Telegram
The Chargé in Germany (Gordon) to the Secretary of State
[Received April 4—4:15 p.m.]
56. The Foreign Minister has just sent me word that the boycott will not be resumed tomorrow. At the same time he wishes me to let you know that he felt it would be very helpful if you could still see your way to issuing a statement which even if it now could not be in the same general form as envisaged last Friday might be calculated to have a similar effect.
I again reminded the Minister (see my 55, April 3, 4 p.m.14) that there now seemed hardly to be any occasion for issuing a statement of [Page 351] the nature previously contemplated. The reply was that he understood that and that the issuance of a statement on our part was in no sense a condition to the non-resumption of the boycott tomorrow but that he nevertheless would greatly welcome anything we might be able to do in this line. He added that if we were disposed to issue a statement, but that it was too short notice to issue it today, it would still be welcome tomorrow or next day.
The British Ambassador informs me that he has just received a similar communication from the Foreign Office and has referred it to London.
Please refer to the record of my telephone conversation with the Under Secretary on April 2d where I said that Friday was a very stormy day here in the Cabinet. The fight is still very much on and the present request is prompted by the Foreign Minister’s need for all the help he and his moderate associates can get against the radical wing of the present Government.
If the terms of last Friday’s proposed statement no longer seem to you to be apposite, I imagine that a reference to the orderly conduct of the boycott on Saturday and an expression of gratification at its being called off would be welcome.
It must be borne in mind that whatever kind of statement the Nazi-controlled press will comment thereon to the effect—no matter how illogically such comment is presented—that we are backing water as a result of vigorous Nazi action; nevertheless you may feel that the good which may be accomplished by the issuance of a statement would more than offset this adverse consideration.
- Not printed.↩