740.0011 European War 1939/3215: Telegram
The Ambassador in France (Bullitt) to the Secretary of State
[Received May 21—4:28 p.m.]
794. The Belgian Ambassador has just called on me with a message from King Leopold for President Roosevelt. The message is dated [Page 204] May 21, 1940 at the General Headquarters of the Belgian Army. An English translation of the message reads as follows:
“Once before, in the tragic days from 1914 to 1918, the American people gave splendid relief to my people.
All your efforts sought to avoid the recurrence of war horrors.
Once more, neutral and loyal Belgium has been violated without provocation by the same aggressor, by whom destruction and ruin are spread everywhere.
The Belgian Army, faithful to its heritage of honor and the legacy left it by my Father, fights with all its strength, resisting foot by foot.
The civilian population women, children, old people, live in anguish, scattered, without shelter, in dire distress, their present situation is even more dreadful than the one in which they found themselves in 1914 when they were so wonderfully helped by the Commission for Belief in Belgium, which for 4 years was regarded by us as the incarnation of human ideals and American generosity.
I earnestly appeal to you on behalf of the Belgian people and I take this opportunity of assuring you of my deep admiration for the high ideal which inspires the free American people, and which you exemplify in your messages and your deeds. (Signed) Leopold.”