760F.62/211½
The British Ambassador (Lindsay) to the Secretary of State
Aide-Mémoire
His Majesty’s Ambassador is instructed to inform the State Department in confidence as follows:
His Majesty’s Government in the United Kingdom have been considering the best way of following up the suggestion that the position [Page 487] of the German minority in Czechoslovakia should form the subject of joint and early consideration between themselves and the French Government. They feel an endeavour should be made to persuade the French Government to join with them in bringing home to the Czechoslovak Government the danger of the present situation both for the independence of Czechoslovakia and for the peace of the world.
Lord Halifax11 has therefore instructed His Majesty’s Ambassador in Paris12 to speak to the French Minister for Foreign Affairs pointing out the danger of a situation in which following upon the incorporation of Austria in the Reich13 the various sections of the German minority in Czechoslovakia are uniting more completely than before and feeling is running high among them, with a consequent increase in the character of their demands, while at the same time opinion in Germany is in a state of exaltation and the momentum created by the spectacular success in the case of Austria may well carry the German Government forward to further operations with a much greater risk of disturbance of the peace. His Majesty’s Ambassador in Paris will draw the attention of the French Government to the fact that the Prime Minister’s statement in the House of Commons on March 24th that “the inexorable pressure of facts might well prove more powerful than formal pronouncements and in that event it would be well within the bounds of probability that other countries than those which were parties to the original dispute would almost immediately be involved” has tended in some quarters to be misunderstood and that a contingency which was stated to be in the nature of a probability and is in fact no more than that is being too readily assumed to be in the nature of a certainty. Sir Eric Phipps will correct any such impression and will point out to the Quai d’Orsay that any such misconception would increase the danger of the situation. In the circumstances he will urge upon them that it is of the greatest importance that the Czechoslovak Government should make every effort to reach a settlement of the German minority problem by negotiations with representatives of that minority (which should cover the whole field of the problem and have as their object a comprehensive and lasting settlement) and that His Majesty’s Government in the United Kingdom and the French Government should use all their influence in Prague in furtherance of such a settlement.