741.51/89: Telegram
The Secretary of State to the Ambassador in the United Kingdom ( Bingham )
25. Your 54, February 5, 8 p.m., last paragraph.41 It would be difficult for us to make a public statement respecting the Anglo-French negotiations which would be helpful in either Germany or Great Britain. Unless you perceive objection, please deliver the following private message from me to Sir John Simon:
“My dear Sir John: I have read with the utmost interest Mr. Atherton’s report on his conversation with you on Tuesday afternoon in which you outlined to him the background of the understandings and recommendations embodied in the communiqué issued last Sunday at the conclusion of the Anglo-French conversations.
“While I do not see how I could usefully comment in a public statement on what is in the first instance a European political development, I do wish to take this occasion to join with you and your French associates in expressing the hope, not to say expectation, that [Page 193] this will prove to be an important step toward the organization and preservation of peace in Europe and that it may be possible, as a result, to resume, under more promising circumstances and in a new atmosphere of cooperation, the negotiations for a general disarmament agreement.
Believe me.
My dear Sir John,
Cordell Hull.”
- Not printed; see memorandum, supra, last paragraph.↩