760C.62/1042: Telegram

The Ambassador in France (Bullitt) to the Secretary of State

1610. Daladier said to me today that he had already sent a reply to Coulondre, French Ambassador in Berlin, to communicate to Hitler72 based on Hitler’s statements to Coulondre reported in my Number 1606, August 26, noon.

He had stated that France had not the slightest desire to go to war but that France had given a promise to Poland to support Poland in case of German attack on Poland and so far as possible this promise would be fulfilled. It was the hope of the French Government that [Page 376] the dispute between Poland and Germany could be settled by direct negotiation between the Polish and German Governments.

Daladier added that at the same time that he had sent this message for delivery to Hitler he had ordered the mobilization of another 700,000 men. Tomorrow on the French frontier there would be 2,550,000 soldiers.

We discussed at great length Hitler’s remarks to Henderson, the British Ambassador to Berlin. Daladier said that he had as yet received no communication from the British Government on this subject; but he would make certain that the British Government should not permit Henderson to lay the basis for a new Munich. He did not believe, however, that the British Government would attempt to do such a thing.

Bullitt
  1. French Yellow Book, doc. No. 253, p. 311.