760C.62/892
Memorandum of Conversation, by the Chief of the Division of European Affairs (Moffat)
The Polish Ambassador called this morning. He had little to offer other than to reiterate the belief of his Government that German [Page 225] strength was overrated. I remarked that the situation worried me as the points of view of Germany and Poland were so clearcut that no compromise seemed possible, and that it was difficult to see either side backing down. The Ambassador said that of course Poland would never back down, but that he did not exclude the possibility of Hitler’s weakening.
He said that the German Army was not the army of 1914. The officers had insufficient training and had not been allowed to remain long enough with the same units of troops. The best generals had been liquidated, and the remaining generals were merely “party hacks”!! The German people did not want to fight, and it would be suicidal to start a war when conditions were already so bad that people were being rationed as to foodstuffs. Furthermore, Germany was burdened with an ally which was scared and whose soldiers would “run like rabbits”.
The whole conversation represented a point of view of unreasoning optimism and still more unreasoning underrating of one’s opponent that, if typical of Polish mentality in general, causes me to feel considerable foreboding.