740.0011 Mutual Guarantee (Locarno)/799: Telegram
The Chargé in France (Wilson) to the Secretary of State
906. In calling yesterday afternoon with Ambassador Phillips7 on Léger the latter had some interesting things to say as follows: speaking of the proposed five-power conference he said that the German reply to the British to the effect that October 19 was too early a date in view of the preparatory work required was merely a pretext. Germany did not want the conference to be held until she could see how the ground lay as regards other matters: Hitler’s preoccupations at present regarding foreign questions according to Léger were two: (first) anti-Russian campaign; (second) the drive for colonies.
- 1.
- The real objective of the anti-Russian campaign was not Russia at all but Western Europe. Hitler had no intention of attacking Russia at least not for the present realizing that Russia was a morass in which the invader would inevitably lose himself. The purpose of the Russian propaganda was to endeavor to convince opinion in the rest of the world, particularly English opinion and French conservative opinion that Hitler was “their man” in the conflict with Communism and that the German rearmament program should therefore be regarded without apprehension, in other words to weaken England, France and Czechoslovakia by lulling them into a false sense of security. Léger said that the French General Staff knew [Page 354] from the war plans of the Germans and from the disposition being made of the German divisions that Germany was making no plan for a war on Russia but on the contrary was concentrating her military strength in the west.
- 2.
- While the situation in Germany looks sound on the surface there were unmistakable signs that all was not well under the surface and the “pure Nazis”—Goering, Goebbels and Hess8—were “war men” who were urging Hitler that the way to consolidate and perpetuate the regime was to have a short and successful war in Europe, say next spring when German military strength would be at its height and before the British had completed their armament program or the French recovered from their present internal dissensions. Hitler, however, “who hesitates more than is generally believed,” hesitated to risk everything on a war and preferred to try to achieve the desired result by playing on the fear of war which exists in other European countries. Hitler had therefore launched a drive for colonies feeling that if this were successful he would be able, without resorting to war, to accomplish what was needed in the way of a spectacular success to impress the German people. It was for this reason that Hitler was being evasive regarding the proposed five-power conference and he was now engaged in sounding out British and French opinion in various ways as to the possibility of obtaining colonies. Léger was of the opinion that if Hitler believed that he could accomplish something regarding colonies he would agree to attend to five-power conference later in the year; if he came to believe that he could accomplish nothing regarding colonies then he would continue his dilatory tactics and there would probably not be any five-power conference. Regarding colonies Léger said that this was really a question for the British to decide.
He said that he did not believe that Mussolini was supporting Hitler in the latter’s demand for colonies. He spoke of the “parallelism” of German and Italian action in the foreign field but did not believe that there was any “concordance” of objectives. He said that Mussolini’s foreign policy of balancing one power against another was not worthy of his abilities and great achievements in the domestic field, saying that Mussolini was not well-informed on foreign matters that he kept too much in his own hands and could not bear to have any first class minds as collaborators.
Léger said that the unwillingness of Portugal to attend the meetings of the London Committee to control the nonintervention policy in Spain was a serious matter and was causing the French Government concern. Blum discussed this with Eden on Sunday here and Eden [Page 355] would press it most strongly on Monteiro9 at Geneva. Léger said that the French embargo on the exportation of war materials to Spain was being scrupulously lived up to, adding that the French Government realized that any failure to do so would give Germany and Italy an opportunity to denounce the nonintervention understanding.
Copies to London, Rome, Berlin, Moscow.