Records of Interview between Hitler and French Ambassador
Records of Interview between Hitler and French Ambassador
Source: Documents on German Foreign Policy vol. IV, P.847. No. 425 Memorandum by the Foreign Minister
BERLIN, November 22, 1935. RM 886.
The Reich Chancellor received the French Ambassador yesterday afternoon. The Ambassador opened the conversation by saying that during his most recent visit to Paris he had had the opportunity of having detailed discussions with Laval, during which M. Laval had expressed his satisfaction over Minister President Goering's speech in Saarbruecken and the attitude towards France expressed in it. It was M. Laval's endeavour, now as previously, to bring about an understanding with Germany. In order to create the atmosphere necessary for this it seemed to him that it would be helpful if Germany, making use of the Ambassador's audience with the Fuehrer, were to issue a communique stating that the German Government continued to desire such understanding. M. Laval wished again to declare that the Franco-Russian Pact, the ratification of which was imminent, was not in any way directed against Germany, since its sole purpose was to bring about the tranquilisation of Europe within the framework of general security. The Chancellor interrupted the Ambassador at this point and declared to him that, in view of the clear wording of the Pact, he could not subscribe to M. Laval's view that the Franco-Russian Pact was not directed against Germany. In Germany's view this assistance pact was the equivalent of a military alliance exclusively directed against Germany. This view was supported by the comment published both in the Russian press and in France at the time when the Pact was concluded. If M. Laval assured him that, because the obligation to render assistance did not come automatically into play, the French Government were free to decide in a given case whether there had been an attack by Germany or not, he, the Chancellor, was very willing to believe that this was M. Laval's view. Recent developments in the Abyssinian-Italian conflict had, however, clearly shown that the Contracting Parties in such an assistance pact by no means remained free to make their own decisions once the machinery of the pact had been set in motion. Furthermore, he did not believe that M. Laval could undertake to guarantee that his possible successors in the Government would share, or would even wish to share, his views. If M. Laval was really so greatly concerned to have an understanding with Germany, which he, the Chancellor, was very willing to believe, then he would like to ask why M. Laval had considered it necessary to proceed via Russia instead of making a direct approach to Germany, who, as the Chancellor had once again clearly indicated in his speech of May 21, was prepared to come to an understanding. The Ambassador gave, as reasons for the fact that M. Laval had so far not replied to the speech of May 21, the difficulties, which had meanwhile arisen from the Abyssinian-Italian conflict and the Italo-British tension. Going on to speak of sanctions, the Chancellor stated that he considered it a grave error to mix up political differences with economic questions, particularly in view of the already existing world economic crisis. If economic compulsion were employed to achieve political ends the result would be that every State would try even harder than before to make itself economically independent of other States. But that would mean a further decline in the exchange of goods and in economic relations. He was convinced that after her present experiences Italy would continue to strive for autarky by every means, and he could assure the Ambassador that the German Government, too, would draw the logical conclusions from the repressive measures decided upon by the League of Nations. The discussions, which lasted nearly two hours, ended with the drafting, at the Ambassador's request, of the communique published by DNB. It should be added that the Ambassador did not mention either the desire expressed by Laval to Ambassador Koester for a declaration by Germany that she would not attack Russia, or the version of the communique proposed to me by M. Poncet, which was to contain explicit recognition of the Russo-French Assistance Pact. v. [NEURATH]
