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.