Berlin, April 1, 1936.
 
 
Dear Mr. President:
 
At this critical moment, I venture a summary of conditions and blunders
which have brought the more democratic peoples of Europe into their
present dangerous status, perhaps repeating some things I have written
before.
I cabled from Basle late in August the anxieties of different nations
about Mussolini's expected break into Ethiopia. From that date to
December 10, I watched popular and official attitudes here. There was
no question
in my mind that two-thirds of the German people hoped and prayed for
prompt application of sanctions, including oil, upon Italy. Germans of
semi-official, University, religious and royalist relations were
unanimous in their nope that one dictatorship would be broken down,
especially
through the cooperation of the United States.  If that happened, these
people thought their own miserable position would be improved, even
corrected. If I were to give the names of the people who showed great
concern and talked freely, you could hardly doubt my conclusions. From
September till the Hoare-Laval blunder even the triumvirate criticized
the Duce; they would be neutral and not help him kill Ethiopians.
 
 
But as soon es the Hoare-Laval announcement was made, clever leaders
like Goebbels began to speak in favor of Italian "colonial needs." Then
the remilitarization of the Rhineland zone was talked seriously, but
always under cover.  About January 1, there was a conference of the
generals of the army. They voted unanimously against sending troops
into the Rhine zone and
also against lending any aid to Nazis who might
 
The President
The White House,
Washington, D.C.