760F.62/396

Memorandum of Conversation, by the Chief of the Division of European Affairs (Moffat)

The French Ambassador called this morning with his new Counselor of Embassy, Mr. Truelle. After discussing the German-Czech crisis over the Sudeten and some of the personalities involved on the German side, the Ambassador said that he had noted two occasions that Mr. Bonnet, in his talk with Ambassador Bullitt, had expressed the hope that the American Government might find it possible to counsel restraint and compromise on the Czechoslovak authorities. [Page 520] He asked whether a reply had been sent to Mr. Bonnet and, if so, whether we had taken the action requested. I replied that a good deal of thought had been given to developments in Europe and that we were watching them almost from hour to hour. Thus far, however, we had made no approach to any government in Europe, but that the situation was so fluid it was difficult to predict what stand, if any, we might take in the future.

The Ambassador made no comment other than to say that he had watched different statements issued from time to time at press conferences by the Secretary (he instanced the one issued after the Austrian crisis60) and said that when we did express ourselves, such statements always conveyed a clear cut indication of policy or opinion, which was not lost upon anyone who chose to examine them carefully.

Pierrepont Moffat
  1. See telegram No. 27, March 19, 3 p.m., to the Ambassador in Germany, p. 456.