Office of the Historian

740.00/934: Telegram

The Ambassador in Belgium (Davies) to the Secretary of State

Brussels, April 18, 1939—5 p.m.
[Received April 18—1:55 p.m.]

47. For the President and the Secretary of State. I am convinced that the decisive factor in Hitler’s determination will be whether or not Russia will support Britain and France wholeheartedly. From personal knowledge I know that the Soviets did mistrust Britain and France, both their purposes and their performances. They do trust you. They also believe in me. I am impelled therefore to suggest that if you considered it advisable I could go to Moscow on the pretext of cleaning up personal affairs for a few days49 (if that pretext is advisable) and can personally and if need be unofficially see Litvinov, Kalinin,50 Molotov51 and, I am quite sure, Stalin52 also with the object of aiding in securing a quick and speedy agreement with Britain against aggression. Neither the French nor the British in my opinion can personally reach the highest authorities there in the negotiations there pending. I am confident that I not only can see the proper people otherwise unreachable but that they have confidence in my good judgment and sincerity. In my judgment Hitler will not fight now if he is confronted with two military fronts. I believe that I could help without commitments in either turning the scales in the Russian decision or aid in strengthening it and thus in a small way help in implementing your great effort for world peace. [Page 235] It may be that from your wider information such action is unnecessary or inadvisable. You know I am sure that my sole purpose is to help. Speed is vital.

Davies
  1. Joseph E. Davies was Ambassador to the Soviet Union, 1936–38.↩
  2. Mikhail Ivanovich Kalinin, Chairman of the Presidium of the Supreme Council of the Soviet Union.↩
  3. Vyacheslav Mikhailovich Molotov, Chairman of the Council of People’s Commissars of the Soviet Union, and People’s Commissar for Foreign Affairs after May 3, 1939.↩
  4. Iosif Vissarionovich Stalin, Secretary General of the Central Committee of the Ail-Union Communist Party (Bolsheviks); member of the Politburo and Orgburo of the Party, etc.↩