740.00119 European War 1939/29: Telegram

The Ambassador in the United Kingdom (Kennedy) to the Secretary of State

1942. My 1919, October 4, 6 p.m. The Foreign Office as yet has no information as to when and how the German peace proposals may be put forth. Recent information indicates that it is unlikely Mussolini will consent to be the medium, particularly if the proposals are of such a nature that it is obvious that they would be refused; they reason that Mussolini would then be put in the unenviable position of having backed an impossible proposition, which might weaken his capacity for resistance to German pressure.

The Foreign Office is increasingly apprehensive of Soviet influence in Germany, this opinion being based on what are said to be reliable reports of growing Bolshevist sympathies among the German masses; since the conclusion of the German agreement with Russia these sympathies are being openly shown.

Kennedy

[The German Chancellor delivered a speech in the Reichstag on October 6, 1939, outlining German war aims. A summary is contained in telegram No. 1613, October 6, 1939, 3 p.m., from the Chargé in Germany (not printed). This speech was reported in the press and an English translation is printed in Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, International Conciliation No. 354, page 495.]