740.00119 European War 1939/111½
President Roosevelt to the Ambassador in Belgium ( Davies )94
Dear Joe: I am more than appreciative of the trouble you took to see that your letter of October 7th95 was placed in my hands with the least possible delay. I have read it with the utmost care, and I hope that you will tell the King that I have given real study to his analysis of the situation as it exists today, and to his suggestion that I make some new move with a view to bringing about peace.
Not a day passes without my trying to see if a favorable opportunity exists for some move that would lead to peace. But now that hostilities are already under way I feel that any endeavor on the part of the United States to bring an end to this war should only be taken after it has become abundantly clear that the path towards which we may point does in fact lie in the direction of peace. I hope you will tell the King that I shall continue to watch the situation day by day, to study—as he does, though in my case from a greater distance—developments as they occur, and if the time should come when I felt that [Page 518] some action on our part would have a good chance of turning the world back towards peace, I could seize it with the firm conviction that I had the support of the united country.
Let me add a line of thanks for your excellent and objective reporting. I follow news from Belgium with personal interest, and I was particularly happy to note the King’s statement to you that he looked upon me as the friend of his late father, of himself, and of Belgium.
Very sincerely yours,
- Photostatic copy obtained from the Franklin D. Roosevelt Library, Hyde Park, New York.↩
- Not printed. For proposal presented in letter of October 7th, see telegram No. 152, October 7, 5 p.m., from the Ambassador in Belgium, p. 507.↩
- A notation attached to this letter states that the original was signed by the President October 19, and was given to Mr. Stanley Richardson to be taken by him personally to the Ambassador.↩