740.0011 European War 1939/12324: Telegram
The Chargé in Germany (Morris) to the Secretary of State
[Received 11:25 p.m.]
2488. The very lengthy proclamation by Hitler and equally lengthy note to the Soviet Government this morning accuse the Soviets of constant extortion and encroachment from the North Cape to the Dardanelles since the understanding of 1939 culminating in the incitement of the Serbs and promises of assistance to them which are stated to prove conclusively that there was a British-Soviet conspiracy against the new Europe. A careful perusal reveals only incidental and indirect reference to the United States such as a statement in the note to the Soviet Government that British diplomacy last April attempted “through the mediation of the Americans in Bucharest” to help the alleged Soviet efforts to gain control of Rumania. Hitler’s proclamation spoke of the “Bolshevik Anglo-Saxon plot” and of the “Jewish Anglo-Saxon warmongers” and asserted that the Balkan campaign was engineered with a purpose of gaining time for Soviet preparations to be completed and American aid to materialize. Of special interest is the statement by Hitler that since August 1940 he found it necessary to concede that such large forces in the east to meet Soviet threat that “especially in regard to the air force a radical termination of the war in the west could no longer be insured by the German leadership.”
[Page 153]I presume that the Department has the full texts of these documents from press sources and I shall not telegraph complete summaries from here unless so instructed.