740.00/995: Telegram
The Minister in Greece (MacVeagh) to the Secretary of State
[Received April 19—2:12 p.m.]
63. The Under Secretary for Foreign Affairs has asked me to communicate confidentially that the reaction of the Greek Government to [Page 145] the President’s appeal is one of enthusiastic approval but that it hesitates to make a public announcement of this fact in view of Greece’s exposed position. He said that he expects that Hitler’s eventual reply will not be wholly unfavorable. He told me that Germany has, since the publication of the President’s message, asked the Greek Government to say categorically whether it feels menaced by Germany, and that forcibly the reply has had to be no. Mr. Mavroudis therefore thinks that part of Hitler’s reply will be that Germany is menacing nobody, quoting statements to this effect by many of the states mentioned by the President. In addition he thinks Hitler may claim to be the originator of the idea of a 10 or 25 year peace and express approval of its subject to satisfaction of certain German claims such as those in regard to colonies and raw materials. Mr. Mavroudis expressed the thought that British and French assurances to Turkey should be given unilaterally as Turkey is in the same situation as Greece, with a large part of her economy in German hands and an Italian military concentration on her flank. In this latter connection and in reference to my telegram No. 53, April 13, 7 p.m.,22 American eye witnesses report continued landing of Italian troops at Rhodes together with artillery and trucks as well as tanks. The number of the latter now in the islands they estimate as several hundred.
Repeated by telegraph to Paris and Istanbul.
- Not printed.↩