751.60F/5–1447: Telegram
The Ambassador in the United Kingdom (Douglas) to the Secretary of State
2737. With reference to possible negotiation of French-Czech and French-Polish pacts, Under Secretary Warner1 comments that French say that it is the Czechs and Poles who have taken initiative while Czechs and Poles say it is the French. “We have been using such influence as we have with the French”, Warner says, “to discourage these pacts on the ground that they are unrealistic.” Quai d’Orsay, however, takes position that when eastern European countries hold out a hand to the west they should not be discouraged. Warner surmises that Quai d’Orsay’s readiness to undertake discussions with Czechs and Poles results from deal with French Communists at time of Anglo-French pact2 signature.
To French here in London, Warner says, the unrealistic nature of bilateral pacts with Czechoslovakia and Poland has been especially emphasized. It has been pointed out that bilateral pacts, would be of little if any help against a resurgent Germany. Such a threat the French here have been told can most effectively be met by the Byrnes’ draft treaty,3 which the French have said they favor and the promiscuous [Page 714] negotiation of bilateral pacts serves only to lessen the chances of a treaty along the lines of the Byrnes’ draft ever being realized.
Sent Dept as 2737, repeated to Paris as 296, to Praha as 14, to Warsaw as 44.
- Christopher Frederick Ashton Warner, an Assistant Under Secretary of State in the British Foreign Office.↩
- Treaty of Alliance and Mutual Assistance between Great Britain and France, signed at Dunkerque on March 4, 1947.↩
- During the Second Session of the Council of Foreign Ministers, Paris, April 25–May 15 and June 15–July 12, 1940, Secretary of State James F. Byrnes submitted a draft four-power treaty for German disarmament; for the text of the draft treaty, see Foreign Relations, 1946, vol. ii, p. 190, or Department of State Bulletin, May 12, 1946, p. 815.↩