500.A15A4 General Committee/982: Telegram
The Ambassador in France ( Straus ) to the Secretary of State
[Received June 16—7:55 a.m.]
445. From Norman Davis.26 Yesterday afternoon I called upon Monsieur Barthou27 accompanied by Marriner.28 He was quite pleased at the adjournment of the parliamentary interpellations which had been scheduled to take place that afternoon as he interpreted this as an indication of parliamentary satisfaction with the policies of his Government particularly with the results obtained at Geneva and said it was most probable that no questions would be raised before his visit to London which he now expects to be about July 6 or 7.
He said he had been quite pleased and relieved at the favorable press reactions in France to his acceptance in principle of the return of Germany to the Disarmament Conference on the basis of the four notes mentioned in the Geneva resolution.29
I asked him whether there had been any further progress in negotiations with Germany and he said no definite steps had been taken but that from what they learn in Germany there was a better spirit manifested and he told me very confidentially that he was dining tonight with Ribbentrop.30 François-Poncet,31 who came into the room just as we were leaving, said that the reconcilement between France and England had had a distinctly good effect on the Germans.
Barthou expressed the hope that I would be in London during his visit and said while he expected difficulties in arriving at a complete understanding with the British he was going with the determination to succeed and was taking Pietri with him both as a useful colleague in the general discussions and because he is Minister of Marine and can thus inform himself usefully of the status of naval conversations. [Davis]
- Chairman of the American delegation to the Disarmament Conference.↩
- Jean Louis Barthou, French Minister for Foreign Affairs; Chairman of the French delegation to the Disarmament Conference.↩
- J. Theodore Marriner, Counselor of Embassy in France.↩
- For text of the resolution, see telegram No. 886, June 8, 1 p.m., from the Chairman of the American delegation, p. 113.↩
- Joachim von Ribbentrop, German Special Commissioner for Disarmament.↩
- André François-Poncet, French Ambassador to Germany.↩