740.00/1937: Telegram
The Ambassador in the United Kingdom (Kennedy) to the Secretary of State
[Received July 21—7:55 a.m.]
1041. Personal for the Secretary. I saw Prince Paul of Yugoslavia last night. He is very bearish on the entire outlook. He said on his visit to Hitler he was impressed with three things: First of all Hitler was convinced that the British Empire was decadent and therefore would not be able to fight very strenuously even though their dispositions were courageous; secondly, he found the same condition that he has in London and Paris; when he asked Hitler and Goering what they knew about Russia they told him “nothing”; third, he found [Page 200] Goering a most decent fellow, very able, and with a real desire to be constructive; Ribbentrop, however, at that time was definitely no longer top.
Halifax told me also that he received a wire from Danzig last night that Forster had told his friends that on his visit to Hitler, Hitler had told him the German demands on Danzig remained the same as in his speech to the Reich but that he was in no hurry and thought the Poles and Germans should play down all discussions of agitation in their newspapers and see whether anything might automatically work itself out. Halifax was pleased but Prince Paul was very distrustful.
Halifax also said that he has not given up hope of getting out of the Chinese situation with some face saving. I said “Do you mean by making all concessions and withdrawing from Tientsin?”15 He said “Not by withdrawing from Tientsin and not giving too much in concessions.” I think he was a little bit carried away with the good report from Danzig because he wanted to assure me that he was not definitely hopeful of China, but just a bit.
- For correspondence regarding the situation at Tientsin, see vol. iv, pp. 163 ff.↩