550.AA1/26: Telegram
The Ambassador in France (Bullitt) to the Secretary of State
[Received April 21—9:15 a.m.]
505. The French press greeted Hitler’s assurance to Lansbury that Germany was ready to participate in a world conference in a spirit [Page 654] of suspicion. The majority of yesterday’s commentators expressed the opinion that Hitler’s gesture was motivated by a desire to influence the British Left opinion opposed to Great Britain’s rearmament program on the eve of the presentation of the British budget.
A few papers, however, view the report more objectively and consider that if faith can be placed in the German Chancellor’s sincerity, his gesture marks a new factor in the international situation which should not be discouraged.
Thus Le Temps probably in this case reflecting official opinion considers that the German gesture is a feeler but that nevertheless there definitely exists in the world today a tendency toward the establishment of a general settlement for a return to normalcy. This paper considers that apart from any distrust engendered by the sorry record of past failures, the impression unmistakably exists that a new idea is afoot which needs encouragement. Reference is made in this connection to Delbos’18 speech at Carcassonne in which he stated that France will be willing to share a one hundred to one chance in supporting any movement for peace. This paper concludes that it must not be overlooked that this offers a chance, perhaps a last chance, for the definite consolidation of peace by means of economic disarmament. Paris Petit Parisian considers that Hitler has paid a striking compliment to the exceptional authority of the American President but that Mr. Roosevelt would have probably liked it better had the announcement been made through some other mouthpiece than Mr. Lansbury.
D’Ormesson in Figaro commenting on German gesture considers that Mr. Roosevelt was far too clever to call a hasty meeting of this nature. Furthermore, this paper and others recall the fact that Monsieur Van Zeeland has been asked to explore the possibilities of trade revival and that this work should proceed slowly and methodically and should not be rushed. Tabouis, on the other hand, in the columns of the Oeuvre sees a desperate present necessity in the German gesture which she compares to the appeal made by Germany in 1918 to President Wilson.19
- Yvon Delbos, French Minister for Foreign Affairs.↩
- Foreign Relations, 1918, supp. 1, vol. i, p. 338.↩