500.A19/58: Telegram
The Ambassador in Germany (Dodd) to the Secretary of State
[Received March 4—1:25 p.m.]
38. For the President. I have had conferences today with von Neurath and Schacht. What I wrote you on February 27 seems even more true than when I wrote it.
The Foreign Minister said that no peace conference can accomplish anything. The greater nations would not agree to gradual disarmament, the chief reason being that great arms and airplane makers would control their governments as they had done since 1920. He added “We would agree to limitation of armaments if the others would” but within a minute’s time he said “We will never allow the present Government in Spain to rule that country” so that contradicts the previous sentence. In view of the facts studied carefully here in a new English book on Spain, the Germans and Italians will continue their vast expenditures and armed assistance till Spain is taken under their control. Von Neurath did say that the German people were anxious and opposed to war as were ours. He blamed English armaments policy, as if it were not a result of German performances.
[Page 641]Schacht said substantially the same on all points, actually acknowledging German efforts against the United States in Latin America. He denied personal responsibility for what business agents had done when I quoted some of their references to him. He did show more anxiety about the enormous war expense here and the danger of war which he said Mussolini was actually threatening. He denied Mussolini’s plan to annex Spain but acknowledged the demand to control that country.
Then he turned once more to his supreme effort to persuade the Chancellor to agree to a peace conference, agree to limitations and then to better international commercial relations. He added “I agree entirely with you and your country as to freer trade relations. That is the basic way to avoid another war. In case your Government wishes it I would be glad to go to Washington and do my utmost to persuade our two countries to come to some commercial agreements which would tend to guarantee peace”. He repeatedly stressed his wish to do this and actually hopes the Chancellor will cooperate. He added that great arms people would do the same way they had done for twenty years to defeat abandonment of warfare and said that the governments would have to control those concerns if we were to have peace.