862.20/912: Telegram
The Acting Chairman of the American Delegation to the Disarmament Conference (Wilson) to the Secretary of State
[Received April 18—3:55 p.m.]
1039. Conversations yesterday during the closing hours of the Council and again today confirm indications of British policy reported in my 1038, April 17, 6 p.m.7 This confirmation is especially emphasized with regard to the seeming incompatibility of the British idea of the imperative necessity for bringing Germany into the community on the one hand with their feeling on the other hand that this cannot be done at this time by negotiation but only by a solid front, a front however which would not be a menace of encirclement. Many of my informants declared that they would watch closely the British press to see how far the Foreign Office intends to go in whipping up public opinion in England against Germany and in favor of “solidarity” it being considered that British opinion now lagged behind Foreign Office policy in this respect.
The matter is further complicated by the strenuous efforts being made for bilateral mutual assistance pacts which are essentially old-fashioned military alliances. These are being negotiated especially between the French and the Russians and Czechoslovakia and Russia. Such pacts of a menacing character for Germany now nearing completion (the understanding is that the Franco-Russian agreement is textually completed and only awaits Laval’s visit to Moscow to be put into effect) are being negotiated simultaneously with the British effort for what might be termed a pure form of collectivity in which Germany’s cooperation is earnestly desired. Whether they wish it or not it seems evident that recent British policy although adopted as the British claim for the purpose of bringing about a real collectivity with Germany as partner actually “legitimizes” and is inextricably bound up with these old-fashioned alliances described above.
Furthermore, many feel that while technically the British Government may be correct in saying that it has taken no further commitments on the continent actually the development of existing commitments is so pronounced as a result of Stresa and Geneva that substantially the British Government has advanced further along the lines of unified resistance to Germany than at any time since Versailles.
[Page 260]The British seem to have gambled on Hitler’s character and the susceptibility of German policy to the influence of solidarity. Only the future will show whether British action was wisely conceived.
I am reporting at length by mail as the present situation has so many angles and so many policies other than the British are involved as to prevent brief telegraphic exposition.