TELEGRAM
                    THE WHITE HOUSE
 
530 am Oct 8 1939        WASHINGTON
 
The following is a paraphrased code cablegram received at the State Department:
 
Brussells, Oct 7, 1939, 5:00 p.m. from Mr. Davies.
 
For the President and Mr. Hull
 
     Here the fear is great that either one or the other of the belligerents may possibly undertake
imminently some amtion that will harden the situation, as it now stands, into a bitter, irrevocable,
horrible and really long war. The possibility of an immediate assault by Germany on the Western
front is not the only cause of this anxiety, but there is also the fear that the other side might
destroy by some precipitous action, the trembling bridge of peace which might yet be afforded by
delay. Here people continue to cling desperately to the hope that time, together with the
development of some possibly unforeseen events, might cause the catastrophe to be averted
before it is definitely and finally established.
 
I have been requested, in this, their darkest hour, by a high source to state that the President of
the United States is the only person in the world who can possibly avert the holocaust. I have
likewise been asked to say that they hope that somehow he might find a way of making again an
effort of some sort similar to those noble ones which he has made in previous crises and which
have so evoked the admiration of all the lovers of liberty throughout the world A special
messenger bearing a dispatch in regard to this is following on the clipper.
 
(from the Secretary of State's office)