COPY Tel. No. 2233 From: Viscount Halifax of September 11th. To: Marquess of Lothian Addressed to Stockholm telegram No. 737 of September 11th repeated to Washington telegram No. 2233. Your telegram No. 1016. Personal and Secret. You should return a reply to the intermediary as follows:- His Majesty's Government did not enter into this war for self defence aims, but for facts and general purposes affecting the freedom and independence of many states in Europe. Their position was defined at length towards German peace offers in maturely-considered statement made by Mr. Chamberlain, then Prime Minister, in the House of Commons on October 12th, 1939. Nothing that has happened since then has led His Majesty's Government to recede in any way from the principles and resolves which were then so clearly set forth. On the contrary, the intention of all the people of the British Empire is to prosecute the war and has been strengthened by the many horrible crimes committed by the rulers of Nazi Germany against the smaller states on her border, and by indiscriminate bombing of London without the slightest relation to military objectives. His Majesty's Government do not wish to prolong the war for a day longer th an is necessary. It therefore li es with the German Government to make proposals by which the wrongs that Germany has inflicted upon other nations may be redressed. Moreover, it would be necessary before any such proposals could be considered, that effective guarantees by deeds not words should be forthcoming from Germany which would ensure in a general peace the restoration of freedom to France, and to other countries which have been deprived of it, as well as the security of Great Britain and the British Empire. |