740.00/1111: Telegram
The Ambassador in France (Bullitt) to the Secretary of State
[Received 3:08 p.m.]
810. Bonnet said to me this morning that he would send for the Soviet Ambassador Suritz today or tomorrow to give him the reply of the French Government to the Soviet proposals.
[Page 241]Bonnet said that the Soviet Government had proposed not only a guarantee for all the states bordering on the Soviet Union, but also had insisted that Poland and Rumania should denounce their treaty of mutual assistance directed against the Soviet Union. Bonnet added that both the Poles and Rumanians were familiar with this, the Soviet proposal, and both had stated that they resented it intensely; that they would not give up their pact of mutual assistance against the Soviet Union and that they considered making them [sic] proposal to bring to absolute failure the efforts of the French and British to provide support for Poland and Rumania.
Bonnet said that he would propose to the Soviet Ambassador the compromise formula that if France should be drawn into war because of her promises to protect Poland and Rumania against German aggression, the Soviet Union should bring all military support possible to the assistance of France, and that conversations between the French, Soviet General Staffs should take place at once.
Conversely the French Government would agree that, in case the Soviet Union should become involved in war arising from German aggression on either Poland or Rumania, the French Government would bring immediate military assistance to the Soviet Government.
Bonnet said that the Rumanians and the Poles were familiar with this French proposal and heartily approved it. He added that in his opinion this was the only form of proposal which could be acceptable to Poland and Rumania and that he intended to stick to it.
He said that Maisky, Soviet Ambassador in London, would take up the same question with Halifax and stated that he believed that Halifax would make proposals on behalf of England on all fours with the proposals which would be made on behalf of France.