740.00119 European War 1939/139:
Telegram
The Ambassador in the United Kingdom (Kennedy) to the Secretary of State
London, November
10, 1939—8 p.m.
[Received November 10—5:05 p.m.]
2330. Personal for the President and the Secretary: Following is text of
the British draft of the identic reply to the appeal of the King of the
Belgians and the Queen of the Netherlands addressed to the King on
November 7. This draft was communicated today to the French Government
and the Government of the Dominions. When their replies are received
delivery of the note will be concerted as to time with the French reply,
and the Foreign Office states that while the British and French replies
cannot be identic, they will be drawn up as nearly identic as possible
as to substance. Subject to comments from the French and Dominion
Governments, there may be minor changes in this draft. The Foreign
Office hopes that delivery can be effected on Monday.3
- “1. I have carefully examined, with my Governments in the
United Kingdom, Canada, the Commonwealth of Australia, New
Zealand, and the Union of South Africa, the appeal which
Your Majesty and Her Majesty the Queen of the Netherlands
addressed to me on November seventh.
- 2. I recall the appeal made by Your Majesty on August
twenty-third in the name of the heads of states of the Oslo
group4 of powers in which you pleaded for the
submission of disputes and claims to open negotiations
carried out in the spirit of brotherly cooperation. My
Government in the United Kingdom as well as the French
Government sent favorable replies to this appeal.
- 3. I recall also the joint offer of good offices made by
Your Majesty and Her Majesty the Queen of the Netherlands to
my Government in the United Kingdom and to the French,
German, Italian, and Polish Governments on August
twenty-eighth. This offer was welcomed by my Government and
by the French, Italian, and Polish Governments. A few days
later the German Government launched an unprovoked attack on
Poland.
- 4. My Governments deeply appreciate the spirit of Your
Majesty’s offer and they would always be willing to examine
a reasonable and assured basis for an equitable peace. It is
and has always been my desire that the war should not last
one day longer than is absolutely necessary and I can
therefore at once reply to that part of Your Majesty’s
appeal in which you state your willingness to facilitate the
ascertaining of the elements of an agreement to be
reached.
- 5. The essential conditions upon which we are determined
that an honorable peace must be secured have already been
plainly stated. The documents which have been published
since the beginning of the
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war clearly explain its origin and
establish the responsibility for its outbreak. My peoples
took up arms only after every effort had been made to save
peace.
- 6. The immediate occasion of our entry into war was the
violent German aggression against Poland. But this
aggression was only a fresh instance of the German policy
towards her neighbors and the larger purpose for which my
peoples are now fighting is to secure that Europe may be
redeemed ‘from the perpetually recurring fear of German
aggression so as to enable the peoples of Europe to preserve
their independence and their liberties’. These words of the
Prime Minister have been amplified and enlarged on a number
of occasions, in particular by him on twelfth October in the
House of Commons and by the Secretary of State for Foreign
Affairs in the House of Lords on second November.
- 7. The elements which in the opinion of my Government must
form part of any settlement emerge clearly and distinctly
from these declarations of policy. Should Your Majesty be
able to communicate to me any proposals from Germany of such
a character as to afford real prospects of achieving the
purpose I have described above, I can say at once that my
Governments would give them their most earnest
consideration.”
