862.00/3663

Memorandum by the Secretary of State

[Extract]

. . . . . . . . . . . . . .

The Ambassador76 said he felt a delicacy in referring to a news report of today which was sent to Berlin in some form, and to an inquiry which came back to him this morning about the reported utterances at Norfolk of Ambassador Dodd,77 who had just landed on his return from Berlin, in which utterances the German Government is reported to have been singled out and seriously criticized by the Ambassador. I replied that I had not seen any copy of the authorized statement of Dodd; that it is true he has almost an obsession on the question of peace and democracy and that on his former visits back home he has constantly called attention to the trend of the world towards more highly centralized governments; that he deeply feels that the more highly centralized a government is the stronger is the tendency against peace and towards militarism; and that he does frequently make statements on this trend of the world situation, but never, so far as I knew, singling out Germany and personating her; that I was sure he would know better, in any event, than to make a [Page 378] personal attack on the government to which he is accredited; that I said this for the reason that his whole mind is on the broad world tendencies. The Ambassador said nothing further on the subject.

C[ordell] H[ull]
  1. German Ambassador, Hans Heinrich Dieckhoff.
  2. In his speech of August 4, 1937, at Norfolk, Dodd made a statement to the effect that the basic objective of some of the powers in Europe was to frighten and even destroy democracies everywhere.