740.00/649: Telegram
The Ambassador in France (Bullitt) to the Secretary of State
[Received March 22—9:54 a.m.]
533. I called on Leger44 who is in charge of the Foreign Office in the absence of Bonnet. He said that the British had sent this morning a proposal to Poland, France, the Soviet Union, Rumania, Turkey, [Page 84] Greece and Yugoslavia asking them if they were prepared to take concerted action with Great Britain in case of further German aggression against any one of them.45 No replies had as yet been received.
The news had reached Paris of German troop concentrations on the Lithuanian border and it seemed possible that the Germans would soon take Memel. He did not believe that this would produce general European war.
We then discussed the relations between Poland and France which have been extremely turbulent today. The Polish Ambassador called on me this afternoon in great excitement to say that he had had a terrible fight with Leger and he wanted my advice and assistance.
Two days ago Bonnet had stated to him that France and Great Britain in reply to a Rumanian inquiry had stated that they were ready to go to war to protect Rumania if Rumania should be attacked. Bonnet had inquired if Poland would do the same.
This morning he, Lukasiewicz, had received from Beck46 a telegram instructing him to state in reply to this inquiry that Poland did not desire to discuss at the present time any such hypothetical question. It was the opinion of the Polish Government that there was no danger of an attack by either Germany or Hungary against Rumania at the present time. The Polish Government was doing everything that it could to bring about a reconciliation between Hungary and Rumania on the basis of mutual concessions. The Polish Government did not wish to interfere with this attempt to obtain mutual concessions by guaranteeing the present frontiers of Rumania. Furthermore, the Polish Government had a military alliance with Rumania directed against the Soviet Union and it could not discuss with France the affairs of its ally unless at the request of its ally.
According to the Polish Ambassador, Leger replied in the most malevolent manner “That means that Poland refuses to join France and England in protecting Rumania”. There were then hot words and almost a fist fight according to the Polish Ambassador.
I talked with Leger later about this episode and found out the Polish Ambassador had given me various explanations which he had not given to Leger which I repeated to Leger and attempted to do what I could to smooth out the matter. The Polish Ambassador said to me that he believed that Beck’s refusal to discuss the question at the present moment would last only 2 or 3 days. He did not believe that Beck’s efforts to reconcile Hungary and Rumania would be successful and he believed that Poland would be ready to give the guarantee for Rumania after those efforts necessarily prove unsuccessful. [Page 85] He felt that the entire question would be raised by the British invitation to Poland to participate in a general guarantee in such imperative form that Beck would prefer to make his answer to the British inquiry rather than to the French.
As I seem to have been able to restore somewhat the sense of humor of both men, I do not believe that the incident reported above will have any very harmful effects.
Leger stated that it was his belief that Beck could not possibly respect [sic] the British proposal but added that he felt that Beck while assenting verbally would prove to be a very bad ally for the British as he had proved to be for the French.
Incidentally, after my return to my house, Leger telephoned to me to say that he had just received a telegram from the French Ambassador in Warsaw saying that he had talked with Beck last night and that Beck was most apprehensive with regard to the possibility that Hungary would attack Rumania immediately. He pointed out that within a few minutes of the time when Beck had said this to the French Ambassador in Warsaw he had telegraphed the Polish Ambassador in Paris that he felt certain that no attack on Hungary by Rumania was imminent.
- Alexis Léger, Secretary General, French Ministry for Foreign Affairs.↩
- Apparently refers to the draft declaration sent to France, the Soviet Union, and Poland, March 20, 1939; see Documents on British Foreign Policy, 1919–1939, Third Series, vol. iv, doc. No. 446, p. 400.↩
- Józef Beck, Polish Minister for Foreign Affairs.↩