Berlin, December 15, 1935.
 
 
Personal
 
Dear Mr. President:
 
 
Let me return the hearty thanks of
 
us all here for your kind letter of Novenmber 27.
 
I wish to add our best wishes to you and yours
 
for a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year, the
 
more since problems both at home and abroad are
 
such that a happy new year would be almost mira-
 
culous.
 
 
I have thought from month to month,
 
since we came here: "Now we shall have a quiet
 
time;" and the silence and avowed neutrality the
 
last two months looked a little that way. But
 
now we are in an atmosphere of strain and anxiety
 
quite as great as last March. The English have
 
put themselves in the worst plight they have been
 
in since the war with all the minor states: the
 
Balkan zone, Sweden, Noway, Denmark, Holland and
 
Belgium. I have seen ministers of these countries
 
the last twenty-four hours, and they talk of with-
 
drawing from the league if England and France do
 
not put the clamps on Italy. There is an intense
 
fear of war and the likelihood of these little
 
states losing their independence. One of these men,
 
who is generally well-informed, insisted last night
 
that Hitler replied to the British proprosal on the
 
13th for arms limitation: We must go to war on the 
 
Soviets, and talked excitedly for minutes upon the 
 
necessity, therefore, of the immense armament here.
 
Much as one may be annoyed at the foolish Soviet
 
propoganda, it seems to me increasingly necessary
 
for democratic peoples to avoid breaks with Russia.
 
With Japan attacking Vladivostok, and Germany 
 
breaking into Leningrad, we should have such hor-
 
rors that one can hardly imagine the consequences.
 
 
What a world we live in| Industrial
 
civilization having reached a state where it can
 
hardly
 
 
The President,
 
The White House,
 
Washington.