English Translation

Paris, 25 August 1939 The publication of the Berlin-Moscow Treaty confirmed on the Quai d'Orsay the diagnosis of the most extreme pessimists. The first reaction both in the government and in the foreign ministry was on the thunder day morning that the war had become inevitable. In the foreign office the council was given to me confidentially in the morning, without delay to leave. In the 36 hours that followed until Friday evening, the first impression has become even stronger, but it has also been supplemented by opinions that I would like to share, as they may be important for the assessment of Paris's official views. First of all, the Quai d'Orsay is now firmly convinced that Italy has made it clear to the leader that they will not participate in a war that is currently taking place between Germany and England. It is even claimed that a secret clause of the Mailan Alliance Treaty states that in the next few years - one speaks of a free-year period - war should not break out through an aggressive action of an axis power if the treaty is to be mandatory for the other power. Mussolini had been willing to participate in the nerve war against Poland, but had refused a real war against England. Under the pressure of this Italian attitude, Ribbentrop then agreed with the Führer to put everything on one map. It was precisely by the fact that Germany had now shown to what extent its government was capable of making decisions that London and Paris had been consolidated in their attitude, which had become practically aggressive dipelomatia. With a state that is capable of changing its principles as well as now Germany by abandoning its anti-communal policy and the transition to an active Comintern policy, there can no longer be predictable relations renewing international trust. If Hitler were to treat Japan and Spain as it had been through the Moscow Treaty, what would he have to do with Poland, France, England, not to talk about the small states at all, when he thought that he would no longer have to fear military violence? The Moscow Treaty confirmed in Paris the thesis of the "proletarian empire of Hitler", and it is precisely from this thesis that resistance has strengthened itself. There is no one - except the official Communist Jounalists, whose activity will probably be possible only for a short time - who currently opposes Daladier's course of opposition and war. Even the left-wing radical trade union CGT has publicly objected to the Moscow Treaty.