740.00116 European War 1939/574: Telegram
The Ambassador in the United Kingdom (Winant) to the Secretary of State
[Received October 6—10:28 p.m.]
5572. Thank you for your message 4850, October 5, 10 p.m., which was very much appreciated here. Both Mr. Eden and Lord Simon were much attracted by the alternative title for the commission suggested by the United States Government and will adopt it. The following is an extract from a memorandum which was handed me tonight by Mr. Eden:
“As regards the additional statement suggested by the President, the Lord Chancellor suggests that you should tell Mr. Winant that he welcomes it and will speak on those lines, although not necessarily in identical terms. For example, he will refer throughout not to Germans but to enemy nationals, since our proposals are not restricted only to Germany and we should be confronted with some awkward questions afterwards if we spoke only of Germans in this statement. The Lord Chancellor also proposes to speak of the violation of every tenet of humanity and not of every Christian tenet, since we have to consider Jews, Moslems, etc. You may in this connection wish to refer to the trouble which has been caused in Turkey and other countries by the recent references to Christian ideals made by Sir S. Hoare35 and Lord Halifax.
Finally, as regards the time of the announcement, it is not possible to be absolutely precise as the Lord Chancellor will be speaking in the course of a debate.36
He suggests, however, that the time given to Mr. Winant should be 3:30 p.m.
You may also like to inform Mr. Winant that all the exiled governments in London and the French National Committee have warmly welcomed the proposal and have authorized us to associate them with it. There has not been time to obtain the views of the Soviet and Chinese Governments.”