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Volume 5 1936~1939

Doc No.
Date
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No. 347 NAI DFA Paris Embassy P19/34A

Confidential report from Con Cremin to Joseph P. Walshe (Dublin)
(P19/34) (Copy)

Paris, 24 August 1939

  1. I have the honour to confirm the despatch this afternoon of a telegram in Irish1 to the effect that 'it is thought here that the situation is most critical. France and England will stand firm and will not ask Poland to yield and if Poland does not yield and Germany continues on her course it is (believed) likely that there will be war before Sunday'.
  2. Official circles (represented in particular by an Officer in the Cabinet of the Minister of Foreign Affairs with whom I was speaking) seemed to think that the situation today is very much more critical than at any time during the September crisis for the reason that the attitudes of the two sides in opposition and in particular the attitude of the 'Peace front' are very much more definitely taken up than in September last. The issue as represented to me is, as at present, that if Poland should decide to move as a result of the action which has been taken today in Danzig or as a result of any other action which should be taken on the German side there is no doubt whatever that war will result; and I was informed that there is no question of France (or Great Britain) urging Poland not to adopt any course of action which she should consider called for. Mr. Herlihy of Reuters has also told me that the information at his disposal both as to the official French attitude and from other quarters in Europe leaves no doubt that the situation is most critical.
  3. No public measure of any importance has been announced after the Council of Ministers today. A third échelon of the Reserve has now been called up (échelon 2 which covers the reservists of the frontier regions). The calling up of this échelon following up on the calling up of the 3rd and 4th échelons last night probably means that at least about 2/5ths of the French man-power has now been mobilised. The right of requisition was declared 'open' in Paris as from mid-night last night.
  4. Public opinion in general seems to consider that the situation is rapidly deteriorating. The semi-official Petit Parisien this morning thought that the situation was extremely acute and considered it impossible to forecast what the issue might be while mentioning that there is a wide divergence between the ideas of Great Britain and France and the 'irreducible position maintained by Germany', this latter in particular being demonstrated by the curt reply made to the demarche of the British Ambassador in Berlin2 to Herr Hitler.
  5. Of the afternoon papers so far available Paris-Soir thinks that the only hope of a peaceful solution lies in the possibility of success of the appeal made yesterday by King Leopold of Belgium, the appeal which the Pope is announced to be making this evening or a possible intervention of President Roosevelt. This paper still suggests however that French firmness may still make Germany recoil.

[stamped] (signed C.C. CREMIN)

1 See document No 346.

2 Sir Nevile Henderson (1882-1942), British Ambassador to Berlin (1937-9).

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