-5-
 
judgment, shown any signs of military strength in her
 
recent attack upon Finland, and spoke with the deepest
 
feeling of the fate of the Finnish people.
 
         I replied to the King that in the judgment of the
 
military authorities of my own government Russia would
 
presumably be strong for defensive purposes, but that we
 
had no evidence which would show that Russia would be
 
strong in any offensive operation. He said that this
 
coincided with his own views.
 
     The King mentioned a conversation he had had some
 
years ago with Mr. Moira, the then President of the Swiss
 
Federal Council,. in which Motta had expressed the belief
 
that Communism was not a danger to the rest of Europe,
 
since he regarded it as a tree which would grow tall and
 
strong, but of which eventually the branches would fall
 
off by their own weight. The King smiled and said that
 
if this simile was accurate, the branches, when they did
 
fall, at least fell off on other peoples  heads. I
 
remarked that another difficulty was the fact that the
 
roots of the tree spread out beyond the confines of the
 
garden where it was planted.
 
     It was very obvious that the King was deeply con-
 
cerned with the possibility of a spread of Communism in
 
Europe as a result of the German-Russian Alliance. He
 
asked me if I knew of Communist propaganda in Germany,
 
and I said that I had received reports that such propa-
 
ganda was increasing, but that I had no conclusive
 
knowledge thereof.
 
     The King then came back to the question of security
 
in Europe. He said he was afraid it was almost an in-
 
soluble problem to persuade the great powers of Europe
 
                                        to