711.00 Statement July 16, 1937/30: Telegram
The Ambassador in France ( Bullitt ) to the Secretary of State
[Received July 24—11:30 a.m.]
1039. Continuing my 1038. In this respect France was as cautious as the United States. He believed that the problem should be attacked first on the economic and financial side. He still had great personal confidence in Van Zeeland25 and hoped that he might be able to devise some scheme which might meet with general approval. Spaak26 would reach Paris today in company with the King of the Belgians. He would say to them that he believed the correct line of procedure would be for very private and secret conversations to take place first between England, France and the United States.
If accord could be reached between these powers an open conference should then take place to which Germany and Italy and the small states which had adhered to the Tripartite Monetary Agreement27 should be invited. He did not mention the Soviet Union or Poland thus indicating that he was following Chautemps’ leadership rather than Blum’s (see my 1024, July 21, 9 p.m.28).
Delbos then said that Van Zeeland had expressed a desire to come to Paris to see him in the near future and added that the three of us could discuss then Van Zeeland’s plans and projects.
Incidentally Delbos said that Eden29 had telephoned him yesterday afternoon to ask if he would approve an appeal to the smaller powers represented in the Spanish Rhine [Non-Intervention?] Committee in [Page 713] the form of a questionnaire asking them what they advised and what they were ready to do. Delbos said he had replied that he was ready to agree to any scheme Eden might devise so long as Eden would keep constantly in mind that the withdrawal of “volunteers” from Spain must precede all other measures.
- Paul van Zeeland, Belgian Prime Minister.↩
- Paul Henri Spaak, Belgian Minister for Foreign Affairs and for Foreign Commerce.↩
- For correspondence regarding Tripartite Financial Stabilization Agreement by the United States, France, and the United Kingdom, see Foreign Relations, 1936, Vol. i, pp. 535 ff.↩
- Not printed.↩
- Anthony Eden, British Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs.↩