Germany's Post-War European Relations

Report Outline
Hitler's Peace Plan and Continuing European Crisis
Period of Passive Resistance to Foreign Subjection
Locarno and the Conciliatory Policy of Stresemann
Positive and Defiant Foreign Policy of Third Reich
Unsatisfied Nazi Demands as Threat to Future Peace

Hitler's Peace Plan and Continuing European Crisis

Anew Stage in the international crisis precipitated on March 7 by German reoccupation of the demilitarized Rhineland was reached on April 1, when the German government delivered at London an elaboration of proposals previously advanced by Chancellor Hitler for the pacification of Europe. The new note added little to the earlier offers. It failed in particular to contain any positive contribution of the kind earnestly sought by Foreign Secretary Anthony Eden to facilitate commencement of negotiations for solution of the problems presented by the Reich's unilateral denunciation of treaties affecting the Rhineland. The request for a pledge from the Reich not to proceed with fortification of that area was not even mentioned. While the German government offered not to send additional troops into the Rhine district for a period of four months and to agree to appointment of an international commission to supervise observance of that pledge, it conditioned both of those offers on French and Belgian acceptance of similar provisions respecting their border areas.

The British government immediately announced that the German plan provided an inadequate basis upon which to start negotiations. It was at once decided that conversations among the general staffs of Great Britain, France, and Belgium should be begun without delay. Great Britain, moreover, in accordance with a previous agreement with the Locarno signatories, dispatched to France and Belgium letters extending official assurance that, in the event of failure of efforts at conciliation, she would consult with those countries on steps to be taken to meet the situation thus created and would immediately come to their assistance in case they became victims of unprovoked aggression. In the meantime, renewed attempts were being made to impress upon the German government the necessity of taking some further action to demonstrate its good will.

While the prospects of finding an early way out of the latest in a long series of European crises thus appeared dark at the beginning of April, hope of discovering the means of allaying tension and of framing a permanent settlement had not been abandoned. Notwithstanding the threatening outlook, General Smuts, distinguished South African statesman, said on March 22 that he regarded “this Rhineland trouble as a great opportunity when peace can be rewritten.”