44

863.00/1178

Memorandum by the Minister to Austria (Messersmith) Regarding A Conversation With the Ambassador in Germany (Dodd)

[Extract]

BERLIN, March 22, 1935.

I had a talk with the Ambassador this morning and we found ourselves in major agreement on all the subjects discussed.

I mentioned a despatch about the Chinese Minister in Vienna having said that I had told him that there was a Japanese-German understanding, if not alliance. I told him that I had not made such a statement but that I had told the Chinese Minister that in May and June, 1933 I had heard talk in Berlin that the Nazis and Japanese were trying to get together. I told the Ambassador that I had good reason to believe at the time that this was so, but I did not know how far it had gone. He said that he thought this had continued and that he felt that it had gone pretty far and he was not at all sure that there was not a very thorough understanding and perhaps even a very far-reaching one.

I told the Ambassador that I thought if these people stayed in much longer we would have something to reckon with, and that many good men had already been affected. He said this unfortunately was the case. We again went over the situation and agreed that no faith

--255--

whatever can be laid in the present regime and its promises, and that we are going to suffer unless we recognize what they are really after, and this means unlimited territorial expansion.

G[EORGE] S. M[ESSERSMITH]

--256--

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