760C.62/885: Telegram
The Ambassador in France (Bullitt) to the Secretary of State
[Received August 19—11 a.m.]
1526. Kirk requests me to transmit to you a message in the following sense:
More evidence has come to his attention indicating that Hitler is not convinced that England and France will fight in case Germany becomes involved in war with Poland.
He has positive information that on the 15th Weizsaecker38 asked both the French and British Ambassadors whether or not England and France would give military aid to Poland if Germany should be compelled to go to war against Poland as a result of Polish provocation. The French Ambassador made a very strong statement in reply pointing out that French opinion had reacted abruptly after the German occupation of Prague, that aggression against Poland by Germany would be considered a threat to the safety of France and that France would march at once in support of Poland. The British Ambassador made a less direct and less categoric answer.
[Page 228]Kirk comments that Weizsaecker’s questions indicate doubt as to the attitude that England and France would take and also a recognition of the importance of the attitude of England and France.
- Baron Ernst von Weizsaecker, State Secretary in the German Foreign Office.↩