711.41/457: Telegram
The Chargé in the United Kingdom (Johnson) to the Secretary of State
[Received February 28—5:50 p.m.]
491. I saw Lord Halifax20 this afternoon at my own request.…
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Lord Halifax made only a passing reference to the coming visit of Mr. Welles, which he said would be very welcome here and that the Government would be glad to talk to him with the utmost frankness. He said that he had sent a message to this effect to Mr. Welles through [Page 14] Sir Percy Loraine, the British Ambassador at Rome. He did not go at any length into the general war situation but he queried whether any sort of peace with Hitler would be possible and whether any faith could be put in his word. He asked me what I thought about it and I said that I did not know but that possibly the present regime in Germany might eventually realize that it was in its own material interest to agree to rational terms of peace and to keep the agreement.…
- British Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs.↩