762.94/180: Telegram
The Ambassador in France ( Bullitt ) to the Secretary of State
[Received November 8—3:47 p.m.]
1572. In conversation this morning an official of the Foreign Office said to us apropos of Italian adherence to the German-Japanese Anti-Comintern Pact that the Foreign Office saw in this enlarged agreement two possibilities which furnished cause for worry. First, it could be used as a pretext by the Fascist states for provoking civil war in any country on the ground that the “defense measures” contemplated by the pact had become necessary to prevent the spread of communism. Second, it could have a far reaching influence on internal developments in many countries, for instance in Yugoslavia, Poland and Czechoslovakia. Yesterday the semiofficial newspaper at Belgrade had praised the Anti-Communist Pact as saving civilization and social order. There might be temptation for Stoyadinovich15 who finds himself in difficulties to try to make use of the Pact by saying that if agitation against him did not cease there would be intervention by Mussolini to preserve order in Yugoslavia. There might be temptation to make use of the Pact in a similarly dangerous manner in Poland and Czechoslovakia.
There is no question, said our informant, that the enlarged Pact is an instrument which can become extremely dangerous. The whole question is whether the three signatories intend to use it as a means for the achievement [of] political ends, or whether they will be content to let it stand as a spectacular gesture to impress the world with their solidarity. Future developments in relation to the Pact will, therefore, bear careful watching.
[Page 613]Our informant went on to say that the new Pact is bound to reenforce everywhere governments of dictatorial tendency and remarked that he supposed that this aspect of the question would in its relationship to certain Latin American countries be of interest to Washington. In this connection he said that the Foreign Office had this morning received a cable from the French Embassy at Tokyo stating that according to the Japanese press Bolivia had announced readiness to adhere to the Anti-Communist Pact. In short our informant added the Pact contains possibilities for disturbing the whole world.
Copies to Berlin, Rome, London, Belgrade.
- Milan Stoyadinovich, Yugoslav Premier.↩