852.00/5551: Telegram
The Ambassador in France (Bullitt) to the Secretary of State
[Received May 31—10:16 a.m.]
707–708. Reference my 705 and 706, May 31, 11 a.m.95 At 10:45 a.m. this morning Blum telephoned to me to say that he had just received a telephone call from François-Poncet, French Ambassador in Berlin, which had disturbed him so greatly that he wished to communicate with me at once.
Poncet last night and this morning had found the members of the German Government in a state of mind which led him to fear the gravest consequences. The news had just arrived that the German Fleet had already bombarded Almeria. Poncet feared that the German Fleet would bombard both Valencia and Barcelona. He, Blum, had not yet been able to get anyone in London on the telephone. Just as soon as he could talk with Eden on the telephone he would do so and he was certain that Great Britain and France would counsel moderation to the German Government through the medium of the German Ambassadors in London and Paris.
He appealed to me to attempt to have the American Government also counsel moderation through a conversation with the German Ambassador in Washington.
I said that I was certain the United States could not associate itself directly in any joint démarche of the British and French Governments. He replied that he considered it intensely important that [Page 309] counsels of moderation should come at about the same time from the United States as well as from France and England. He asked me if it might not be possible for me to get in touch at once with the President and to inform him that he Blum regarded the situation as most serious and that counsels of moderation from our Government to the German Ambassador in Washington might be decisive in determining how far Germany would go. The matter was especially grave Blum said because the account of the incident given by the Valencia Government appeared to be inaccurate. His information was that the Deutschland had not fired at the aeroplanes. I informed Blum that the President was at Hyde Park and could not possibly take up the matter personally but added that I would communicate his remarks to you at once. I shall attempt to telephone to you at 9 a.m. Washington time, 3 p.m. Paris time today.
From the point of view [of] our relations with the French Government it would be most valuable if in the course of expressing our sympathy for the loss of German lives in the attack on the Deutschland you should be able to express a hope that the incident may be settled peaceably. I quite realize that many questions are involved other than those of our relations with the French Government but in any event I hope that you will be able to inform me in the course of the day with regard to the reply I should make to Blum.
- Latter not printed.↩