760C.62/1230: Telegram
The Ambassador in France (Bullitt) to the Secretary of State
[Received August 31—12:35 p.m.]
1678. Léger has informed me that the Polish Government at 1:00 o’clock today agreed in principle to enter into direct negotiations with Germany. All details as to place of meeting and subjects to be discussed are still undecided.
Daladier has just said to me that he is still not without hope of preserving peace since there are indications that Hitler at the last minute will not dare to risk war.
I have now read the full text of the British nine-point note to Hitler referred to in my No. 1676 of August 31, 2 p.m.,96 and while it shows a tendency to go into larger questions than the mere matter of arranging direct negotiations between Poland and Germany it will in my opinion do no damage provided this tendency is not permitted to develop further.
Everyone at the French Foreign Office is expecting in the immediate future some sort of a proposal by Mussolini designed to produce a general conference to deal with the question of Danzig and a vast number of other questions. Needless to say the Poles will not accept [Page 397] the decision of a general conference in respect of Hitler’s demands against Poland, and the French at the present moment are also opposed to a general conference.
- Not printed.↩