LONDON, March 12, 1940.
 
     I had at 10 a.m., at the Embassy, an hour's conversa-
 
tion with Major Clement Attlee and Mr. Arthur Greenwood,
 
Leader and Deputy Leader of the Labor Party in the House 
 
of Commons. The former is a small and ineffective-looking 
 
man who, I was told, suffers continuously from wounds
 
received in the last war. The latter is a facile talker 
 
who is generally believed would have obtained the leader-
 
ship of his party had he not been such a heavy drinker. 
 
The Ambassador told me after the interview that Mr. Green-
 
wood was "half seas over" during our talk. Perhaps unduly 
 
ingenuous, I did not myself notice it.
 
     Both Major Artlee and Mr. Greenwood took very much the
 
same line as had Lord Snell the evening before- the Labor
 
Party was supporting British participation in the war solely
 
because of the moral values which were at stake. The Labor 
 
Party was not divided on the issue of British participation 
 
in the war as it had been in 1914. Today only a small per-
 
centage of the Party opposed British entrance into the hos-
 
tillties. If any way could be found, or any plan be devised,
 
which would give the British people real security and the
 
independent nations of Europe positive assurance that they
 
could live their lives, in peace, and not be subject to
 
constant threat of aggression, the Labor Party would whole-
 
heartedly support such a plan. The Party was not opposed to 
 
peace throughout negotiation with any government of Germany 
 
provided the objectives named could be attained. The cont-
 
inuation of the present was for any length of time, or the 
 
commencement of a war of devastation, would bring into 
 
ruins many of the social gains for which the Labor Party
 
had striven. It would postpone any hope of economic recovery,
 
                                                  and