765.75/494: Telegram
The Ambassador in the United Kingdom (Kennedy) to the Secretary of State
[Received April 14—9:55 a.m.]
479. For the President and the Secretary of State. Reference Radio Bulletin number 86 of this morning to State Department press conference where a correspondent stated that “Lord Halifax had also spoken today addressing the House of Lords and had declared that the attitude of the British people which had impelled this decision was reflected in large measure in the United States.”
The actual text of that part of Lord Halifax’s statement which, referring to the United States, appears in Hansard as follows:
“There is of course no dispute about the strong position and the special interests that Italy had enjoyed in Albania. These things [Page 403] were expressly recognized by the Council of Ambassadors many years ago and, so far as I know, they have never been challenged. But, whatever may be said as to that, there can be no doubt as to the general effect produced in all quarters by Italian action. It is not necessary for me to take up Your Lordships’ time by stating at length what must be the judgment of His Majesty’s Government on these events. That judgment had been shared by the overwhelming mass of opinion in this country, by most of the States of Europe, and by the United States of America.”
When I saw the Prime Minister this morning he told me that he was very much disturbed by reaction in the United States as indicated in press reports which have misrepresented what Lord Halifax really said. The Prime Minister himself purposely refrained from making any reference to the United States in his speech to the House of Commons.