Office of the Historian

711.62/182: Telegram

The Chargé in Germany (Gilbert) to the Secretary of State

Berlin, December 27, 1938—noon.
[Received December 27—9:10 a.m.]

754. I have the following from a reliable private source.

1.
Hitler became exceedingly irate upon being informed of the Acting Secretary’s response to Thomsen’s presentation of the German protest concerning Secretary Ickes’ speech. He stated later that he had reason to believe the Ickes’ and similar statements were motivated by internal American political considerations.
2.
Ribbentrop is at the moment considering demonstrations termed a retaliation in kind to the Acting Secretary’s statements to the German Chargé d’Affaires and to the publicity given thereto. In other words he is devising the adoption of some attitude toward me or the making of some statement to me which may be given corresponding publicity. I have been told that care would be taken not to give the impression that anything was aimed at me personally but that I would be treated solely in my representative capacity. While nothing of this concrete nature may transpire I am informed that the present temper of Ribbentrop and his associates is not to let the Thomsen matter pass without evincing German resentment by some specific [Page 455] act or perhaps by some attitude to be sustained for a period toward the Embassy in the conduct of its affairs. I may add that to achieve personal satisfaction in such a manner would be characteristic of the regime and in particular of the personalities involved.

While I personally regard the foregoing information as very interesting I am not yet prepared to appraise its bearing on the considerations discussed in my No. 753, December 24, 4 p.m. On this score we are preparing a telegram on the German press which as far as I can note at the moment seems over the weekend at least by its change in emphasis and relative restraint to have retreated from the high point of the Saturday16 morning outburst.

Gilbert
  1. December 24.↩