755.00/44
The Chargé in the Soviet Union (Henderson) to the Secretary of State
[Received November 6.]
Sir: I have the honor to report that the recent announcement by the King of Belgium that it was the intention of Belgium to adopt the position of neutrality in international affairs came apparently as a distinct shock to those Governmental and Party officials charged with the carrying out of Soviet foreign policies. For months the Soviet press has been pointing out that if the French Government continues to follow a vacillating foreign policy the group of small European nations which have looked to her for guidance and support ever since the establishment of the League of Nations will fall away from her one by one and will assume either an attitude of neutrality or will fall under the influence of Germany.
The resignation of Titulescu, the former Rumanian Minister for Foreign Affairs, has been a cause of considerable concern to the Soviet Government; and now the decision of the Belgian Government makes it begin to fear that the foundations are already beginning to fall away from the structure of so-called collective security which it had hoped to build in Europe and with the aid of which it had planned to play a leading role in Europe and particularly to check the growth of German influence.
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In an article published in the Moscow Izvestiya of October 23d, entitled “Little ‘Questionnaires’ and Big Questions”, P. Lapinski [Page 365] (Paul L. Mikhailski), the well known Soviet expert on Western European and American affairs, ascribes the action of Belgium to the following factors:
- (1)
- The activity of the reactionary fascist elements within Belgium;
- (2)
- The influence of Germany, Italy and Poland. In this connection he intimates that the recent visit of Beck to Belgium may have had some connection with the shift in Belgian foreign policy; and
- (3)
- The zig-zags of French and British policy, as well as the numerous refusals of Great Britain to bind itself to France and Belgium.
A responsible official of the Belgian Legation has told me that in his opinion one of the major factors responsible for the action of the Belgian Government was the determination of that Government not to be dragged, by virtue of the Franco-Soviet Pact of Mutual Assistance, into a war involving primarily Germany and the Soviet Union. It appears that similar statements have been made in the British press. Lapinski and other Soviet writers, as well as several Soviet officials with whom I have discussed the matter insist that there can be no connection whatever between the sudden shift in Belgian foreign policy and the Franco-Soviet Pact.…
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Respectfully yours,