852.00/4026: Telegram
The Ambassador in France (Bullitt) to the Acting Secretary of State
1217. Officials at the Foreign Office are far from pleased at the thought of attending the Council meeting at Geneva on December 10 to consider the Spanish situation. They understand that Litvinoff is “furious” at the action of the Spanish Government in having brought about this meeting against his advice and that he will not attend. They also say that neither Eden nor Delbos will go to Geneva and that Vienot31 will probably head the French delegation. The Foreign Office states that they have no idea how matters will develop at the Council meeting and that their one preoccupation will be to prevent anything taking place there which might give the Germans and the Italians an excuse for withdrawing from the London Non-Intervention [Page 596] Committee. The Foreign Office looks on this Committee as a “brake”, a brake which undoubtedly slips frequently but which nevertheless has the great merit of serving to keep the situation from plunging precipitately towards a catastrophe.
With regard to the joint démarche of the French and British Governments to the German, Italian, Russian and Portuguese Governments (see our No. 1213 December 8, 5 p.m.) the Foreign Office states that what it fears is that if the present state of affairs in Spain is allowed to drag on for some time the Italians will have become so entrenched in the Balearics and the Germans will have attained such a position in Morocco either actual or pledged as will create an impossible situation for France and Great Britain, a situation which must inevitably bring about a general conflict.
Copies to London, Rome, Berlin.