740.00/299½
Memorandum of Conversation, by the Under Secretary of State (Welles)
The British Ambassador called to see me this morning.
The Ambassador inquired what my reactions might be to the events of the past few days in England. I said that I could only answer in very general terms, namely, that I trusted that the realistic and energetic efforts which the British Prime Minister was making towards reaching a peaceful solution to the various political adjustments in Europe might meet with success and that there might result therefrom the opportunity for a general world appeasement which would once more make possible the reestablishment of those principles of international conduct to which this Government is so firmly committed and without which it did not believe any permanent peace could be found.
The Ambassador spoke with a good deal of feeling about the debate between Mr. Chamberlain and Mr. Eden. He said that he was really at a loss to understand the position which had been assumed by Mr. Eden inasmuch as he could not see that any question of principle was involved. He had listened to Mr. Eden’s speech which had been rebroadcast by the British Broadcasting Company of this country and had gathered from that speech that Mr. Eden intended to convey the impression that his resignation was due to the fact that he would not agree to conversations with Italy until and unless Italy would give overt evidence of her willingness to withdraw voluntarily from Spain and to cease anti-British propaganda.
The Ambassador stated that just after he finished listening to this address his official mail had come in from London, including memoranda of the conversations which Mr. Eden himself had had in London only the week before with Count Grandi, the Italian Ambassador, and that in these conversations Mr. Eden had evidenced his own desire to reach an agreement through the negotiations now proposed by Mr. Chamberlain and that the Ambassador would judge from these memoranda that Mr. Eden himself was morally and officially obligated to exactly the same course as that which Mr. Chamberlain had now announced. The Ambassador made it entirely plain that he felt that Mr. Eden’s resignation was in no sense due to any difference on principles but to other causes which were partly personal and partly differences of opinion as to methods to be employed.
The Ambassador expressed the opinion that there now seemed to be some real prospect of success. He said that he believed that the recent changes in the Nazi government which Hitler had been forced to make had shown that there had existed a situation in Germany far [Page 139] more serious in character than that so far indicated in the press and that Hitler today, for reasons of domestic policy, is far more desirous of reaching a prompt agreement with Great Britain and France through Italy than at any previous time. The Ambassador emphasized his belief, however, that an agreement with Italy on the part of Great Britain would necessitate a simultaneous agreement with Germany and did not seem to feel that an agreement with Italy was feasible as an isolated agreement rather than as a part of a four-power agreement between Germany, Italy, France and Great Britain.
I inquired of the Ambassador if he had any recent word from his Government and he said nothing other than a copy of the message sent to this Government by Chamberlain and transmitted by our Embassy in London.15 He said, however, that he would take particular pains to keep me closely informed of any information which he received from his Government as to the progress made in the prospective negotiations.
- Not found in Department files.↩