862.20/909: Telegram

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

82. With English and even French press minimizing Geneva resolution81 German press is stressing it as hypocrisy, distortion and as creation of new “guilt lie” which makes return to League difficult. General situation seems more acute. German outcry largely due to disappointment at non-support by Poland, Spain and Latin America which had been hoped for and to desire to induce better treatment at prospective Rome conference on Danubian problems which von Bülow82 told me Germany will participate in if invited.

Bülow was more pessimistic than on former occasions seeing in Franco-Russian agreement83 danger of aggression with Soviets utilizing Czechoslovak air facilities. Lack of moderation in Praha, the Memel trouble, and the Corridor problem (which despite the German-Polish Pact also worries the Polish Ambassador as he told me himself) increased Bülow’s uneasiness. When I asked him if war were imminent he said No, adding that for the present Germany had to straighten out the differences between the Reichswehr, the SS and the SA which work would run into the autumn.

Dodd
  1. Reference apparently is to resolutions of the Council of the League on April 16, 1935; see League of Nations, Official Journal, May 1935, p. 551.
  2. Bernhard Wilhelm von Bülow, German Secretary of State in the Foreign Office.
  3. League of Nations Treaty Series, vol. clxvii, p. 395.