751.62/499: Telegram
The Chargé in France (Wilson) to the Secretary of State
[Received November 23—3 p.m.]
1982. I have just had read to me at the Foreign Office the text of the declaration which has been agreed upon between the French and German Governments.32
It is in three paragraphs the first being in the nature of a preamble expressing interest in the maintenance of peaceful and neighborly relations between the two Governments. In the second paragraph the declaration is made that as between the two countries there is now no longer any question of a territorial character and the two countries solemnly recognize that the frontiers between them as they exist today [Page 101] are definitive. In the third paragraph the two Governments oblige themselves under reservation of their particular relations with third countries to concert on all questions interesting the two countries and to consult together if the further development of these questions could lead to internal difficulties.
The agreement takes the form of a declaration between the Ministers of Foreign Affairs of France and Germany.
Bonnet is seeing the press at 6:30 this afternoon after having met Chamberlain and Halifax on their arrival in Paris and he will presumably furnish certain details regarding the declaration to the correspondents. I am informed, however, that the text will not be published for the time being and it is therefore requested that the details concerning the declaration as given above be regarded as strictly confidential.
I am also told in confidence that Ribbentrop will probably come to Paris next Tuesday, November 29, for the purpose of signing the declaration at which time the text would be made public.
- Signed December 6, 1938, German Documents, 1918–1945, ser. D, vol. iv, p. 470.↩