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. |