123 Dodd, William E./182½
Memorandum by the Under Secretary of State (Welles)
The German Ambassador called upon me this morning at my request. I told the Ambassador that I had informed the Secretary of [Page 382] State of the conversation I had had on the steamer returning to the United States in the course of which the Ambassador had stated that he (Dodd) bore with him instructions to advise officially the Secretary of State that owing to the statement which he had made upon his arrival at Norfolk and owing to the telegram86 he had sent protesting against the visit of Mr. Gilbert to Nuremberg at the time of the Nazi anniversary celebration, the German Government felt that Ambassador Dodd would have so difficult a position in Berlin should he return to Germany that his relations with the officials of the German Government could not be relations of confidence and friendship, with resultant detriment to good understanding between the two governments. The Ambassador had added in his conversation with me that his Government did not request the recall of Mr. Dodd but desired to make it plain that the German Government did not feel that he was persona grata. I further said to the Ambassador that I had told the Secretary of State of the very courteous and friendly way in which the Ambassador had told me that he did not desire to carry out these instructions and to make these representations to the Secretary of State unless Mr. Dodd were returning to Germany permanently or at least for an indefinite period as Ambassador.
I then said to the Ambassador that the Secretary of State had authorized me to let him know informally and for the confidential information of his Government that while Mr. Dodd was returning to Berlin, he was returning for the purpose of closing his mission and would in all probability leave Berlin definitely shortly after the beginning of the new year. I said there was also the possibility, although I could not make any authoritative statement in this sense, that Mr. Dodd, before leaving the United States, would let it be known through the press that he was returning to Berlin only for a short time and would retire in the not distant future.
The Ambassador expressed his very deep appreciation of our courtesy in giving him this information and said that under these circumstances he would of course make no communication whatever concerning Mr. Dodd to the Secretary of State. He said he hoped that I would permit him to say that on his recent visit to Berlin he had been very much struck at the Foreign Office with the exceedingly agreeable personal relations which existed between the Secretary of State of Foreign Affairs and the other high officials of the German Foreign Office and the French and British Ambassadors; that both of these Ambassadors had the high regard and confidence of Baron von Neurath87 who is accessible to them at any time and that he was so interested in promoting better relations between the United States and [Page 383] Germany that he could not refrain from expressing the belief that any Ambassador of the United States in Berlin who possessed these relations with the high officials of the German Government would be very helpful in furthering that objective.
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