At Warm Springs, Ga., December 2, 1935. My dear Dodd:- I am glad to know from yours of October thirty-first that I was right in assuming that there had been no real change in German policy for the last few months. It seems clear that from the point of view of the group which now controls the destinies of the German people, their policy is succeeding admirably. Germany got an acceptance, passive though it may have been, of her rearmament by land and sea. Germany . has kept out of the Italian situation by resign- ing from Geneva. Germany seems to be starving off actual bankruptcy through the tricky Schacht policies which win him the admiration of the international bankers. I wish I could talk with you at length in regard to the Neutrality situation. If you had been here I do not think that you would have felt the Senate Bill last August was an unmitigated evil. The crux of the matter lies in the deep question of allowing some discretion to the Chief Executive. Quite aside from any connection with the League, the President should have some discretion. For example, if some European power were to seek, by force of arms, a raw material source in South America, we should have to take sides and might, without going to war ourselves, assist the South American nation with supplies of one kind or another. Complete stoppage of all arms material |