SOME DOCUMENTS RELEVANT TO FRANCE'S RESPONSE TO GERMANY'S 
INVASION OF POLAND.

The file contains the following documents in the order of 
appearance in the file:

(1) Address by Edouard Daladier, Premier, in the Chamber of 
Deputies, September 2, 1939.

(2) Telephone communication from Robert Coulondre, French 
Ambassador to Germany, to the French Minister for Foreign 
Affairs (Georges Bonnet), September 3, 1939

(3) Statement by Edouard Daladier, Premier, to the Nation, 
September 3, 1939

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(1) Address by Edouard Daladier, Premier, in the Chamber of 
Deputies, September 2, 1939.

Gentlemen, 

The Government yesterday decreed general mobilization.

The whole nation is answering the call with serious and resolute 
calm.  The young men have rejoined their regiments.  They are 
now defending our frontiers.  The example of dignified courage 
which they have just set to the world must provide inspiration 
for our debates.  In a great impulse of national brotherliness 
they have forgotten everything which only yesterday could divide 
them.  They no longer acknowledge any service but the service of 
France.  As we send them the grateful greeting of the nation let 
us all pledge ourselves together to be worthy of them.

Thus has the Government put France into a position to act in 
accordance with our vital interests and with national honor.

It has now the duty of setting forth before you the facts as 
they are, fully, frankly, and clearly.

Peace had been endangered for several days.  The demands of 
Germany on Poland were threatening to provoke a conflict.  I 
shall show you in a moment how - perhaps for the first in time 
history - all the peaceful forces of the world, moral and 
material, were leagued together during those days and during 
those nights to save the world's peace.  But just when it could 
still be hoped that all those repeated efforts were going to be 
crowned with success, Germany abruptly brought them to naught.

During the day of August 31 the crisis reached its peak.  When 
Germany had at last let Great Britain know that she agreed to 
hold direct negotiation with Poland, a course which she had , 
let it be said, refused to me, Poland, in spite of the terrible 
threat created by the sudden armed invasion of Slovakia by the 
German forces, at one endeavored to resort to this peaceful 
method.  At one o'clock in the afternoon M. Lipski, the Polish 
Ambassador to Germany, requested an audience from Herr von 
Ribbentrop.  Peace seemed to be saved.  But the Reich Minister 
for Foreign Affairs would not receive M. Lipski till 7:45 P.M., 
seven hours later.  While the latter was bringing the consent of 
his Government to direct conversations, the German Minister 
refused to communicate Germany's claims to the Polish 
Ambassador, on the pretext that the Ambassador had not full 
powers to accept or reject them on the spot.

At 9 P.M. the German wireless was communicating the nature and 
the full extent of these claims; it added that Poland had 
rejected them.  That is a lie.  That is a lie, since Poland did 
not even know them.

And at dawn on September 1 the Fuhrer gave his troops the order 
to attack.  Never was aggression more unmistakable and less 
warranted; nor for its justification could more lies and 
cynicism have been brought into play.

Thus was wear unleashed at the time when the most noteworthy 
forces, the authorities who ewre at the same time the most 
respected and the most impartial, had ranged themselves in the 
service of peace; at the time when the whole world had joined 
together to induce the two sides to come into direct contact so 
as to settle peacefully the conflict which divides them.

The Head of Christianity had given voice to reason and feelings 
of brotherhood; President Roosevelt had sent moving messages and 
proposed a general conference to all countries; the neutral 
countries had been active in offering their impartial good 
offices.  Need I say that to each of these appeals the French 
Government gave an immediate welcome and complete assent?

I myself, Gentlemen, if I may be allowed a reference to my own 
person, thought it my duty as a Frenchman to approach Herr 
Hitler directly.  The Head of the German Government had let me 
know on August 25, through M. Coulondre, our Ambassador in 
Berlin, that he deplored the fact that in case of an armed 
conflict between Germany and Poland, German blood and French 
blood might be shed.  I immediately had a definite proposal put 
to the Fuhrer, a proposal wholly inspired by the real concern to 
safeguard without any delay the peace of the world now 
imperiled.

You were able to read, I think in fact that you must have read 
these texts.  You know the answer I was given; I will not dwell 
on it.

But we were not disheartened by the failure of this step, and 
once more we backed up the effort to which Mr. Chamberlain 
devoted himself with splendid stubbornness.  The documents 
exchanged between London and Berlin have been published. On the 
one side impartial and persevering loyalty; on the other side, 
embarrassment, shifty and shirking behavior.  I am also happy at 
this juncture to pay my tribute to the noble efforts made by the 
Italian Government.  Even yesterday we strove to unite all men 
of goodwill so as at least to stave off hostilities, to prevent 
bloodshed and to ensure that the methods of conciliation and 
arbitration should be substituted for the use of violence.

Gentlemen, these efforts towards peace, however powerless they 
were and still remain, will at least have shown where the 
responsibility lies.  They insure for Poland, the victim, the 
effective co-operation and moral support of the nations and of 
free men of all lands.

What we did before the beginning of this war, we are ready to do 
once more.  If renewed steps are taken towards conciliation, we 
are still ready to join in.

If the fighting were to stop, if the aggressor were to retreat 
within his own frontiers, if free negotiations could still be 
started, you may well believe, Gentlemen, the French Government 
would spare no effort to ensure, even today, if it were 
possible, the success of these negotiations, in the interests of 
the peace of the world.

But the time is pressing; France and England cannot look on when 
a friendly nation is being destroyed, a foreboding of further 
onslaughts, eventually aimed at England and France.

Indeed, are we only dealing with the German-Polish conflict?  We 
are not, Gentlemen; what we have to deal with is a new stage in 
the advance of the Hitler dictatorship towards the domination of 
Europe and the world.  How, indeed, are we to forget that the 
German claim to the Polish territories had been long marked on 
the map of Greater Germany, and that it was only concealed for 
some years to facilitate other conquests?  so long as the 
German-Polish Pact, which dates back only a few years, was 
profitable to Germany, Germany respected it; on the day when it 
became a hindrance to marching towards domination it was 
denounced unhesitatingly.  To-day we are told that, once the 
German claims against Poland were satisfied, Germany would 
pledge herself before the whole world for ten, for twenty, for 
twenty-five years, for all time, to restore or to respect peace.  
Unfortunately, we have heard such promises before!

On May 25, 1935, Chancellor Hitler pledged himself not to 
interfere in the internal affairs of Austria and not to unite 
Austria to the Reich; and on March 11, 1938, the German army 
entered Vienna; Chancellor Shuschnigg was imprisoned for daring 
to defend his country's independence, and no one to-day can say 
what is his real fate after so many physical and moral 
sufferings.  Now we are to believe that it was Dr. Schuschnigg's 
acts of provocation that brought about the invasion and 
enslavement of his country!

On September 12, 1938, Herr Hitler declared that the Sudeten 
problem was an internal matter which concerned only the German 
minority in Bohemia and the Czechoslovak Government.  A few days 
later he maintained that he violent persecutions carried on by 
the Czechs were compelling him to change his policy.

On September 26 of the same year he declared that his claim on 
the Sudeten territory was the last territorial claim he had to 
make in Europe.  On March 14, 1939, Herr Hacha was summoned to 
Berlin: ordered under the most stringent pressure to accept an 
ultimatum.  A few hours later Prague was being occupied in 
contempt of the signed pledges given to other countries in 
Western Europe.  In this case also Herr Hitler endeavored to put 
on the victims the onus which in fact lies on the aggressor.

Finally, on January 30, 1939, Herr Hitler spoke in loud praise 
of the non-aggression pact which he had signed five years 
previously with Poland.  He paid a tribute to this agreement as 
a common act of liberation, and solemnly confirmed his intention 
to respect its clauses.

But it is Herr Hitler's deeds that count, not his word.

What, then, is our duty?  Poland is our ally.  We entered into 
commitments with her in 1921 and 1925.  These commitments were 
confirmed.

I, myself, in the Chamber said, on May 11 last:

"As a result of the journey of the Polish Minister for Foreign 
Affairs to London and of the reciprocal pledges of guarantee 
given by Great Britain and Poland, by a common agreement with 
this noble and brave nation we tool the measures required for 
the immediate and direct application of our treaty of alliance."

Parliament approved this policy.

Since then we have never failed both in diplomatic negotiations 
and in public utterances, to prove faithful to it.  Our 
Ambassador in Berlin has several times reminded Herr Hitler 
that, if a German aggression were to take place against Poland, 
we should fulfill our pledges.  And on July 1, in Paris, the 
Minister for Foreign Affairs said to the German Ambassador to 
France:

"France has definite commitments to Poland.  These engagements 
have been further strengthened as a result of the latest events, 
and consequently France will at once be at Poland's side as soon 
at Poland herself takes up arms."

Poland has been the object of the most unjust and brutal 
aggression.  The nations who have guaranteed her independence 
are bound to intervene in her defense.

Great Britain and France are not Powers that can disown, or 
dream of disowning, their signatures.

Already last night, on September 1, the French and British 
Ambassadors were making a joint overture to the German 
Government.  They handed to Herr von Ribbentrop the following 
communication from the French Government and the British 
Government, which I will ask your leave to read to you:

"Early this morning the German Chancellor issued a proclamation 
to the German Army which indicated that he was about to attack 
Poland.  

"Information which has reached His Majesty's Government in the 
United Kingdom and the French Government indicates that attacks 
upon Polish towns are proceeding.  

"In these circumstances it appears to the Governments of the 
United Kingdom and France that by their action the German 
Government have created conditions, (viz., an aggressive act of 
force against Poland threatening the independence of Poland) 
which call for the implementation by the Government of the 
United Kingdom and France of the undertaking to Poland to come 
to her assistance.  

"I am accordingly to inform your Excellency that unless the 
German Government are prepared to give His Majesty's Government 
satisfactory assurances that the German Government have 
suspended all aggressive action against Poland and are prepared 
promptly to withdraw their forces from Polish territory, His 
Majesty's Government in the United Kingdom will without 
hesitation fulfill their obligations to Poland."

And indeed, Gentlemen, it is not only the honor of our country: 
it is also the protection of its vital interests that is at 
stake.

For a France which should allow this aggression to be carried 
out would very soon find itself a scorned, an isolated, a 
discredited France, without allies and without support, and 
doubtless, would soon herself be exposed to a formidable attack.

This is the question I lay before the French nation, and all 
nations.  At the very moment of the aggression against Poland, 
what value has the guarantee, once more renewed, given for our 
eastern frontier, for our Alsace, for our Lorraine, after 
repudiation of the guarantees given in turn to Austria, 
Czechoslovakia, and Poland?  More powerful through their 
conquests, gorged with the plunder of Europe, the masters of 
inexhaustible natural wealth, the aggressors would soon turn 
against France with all their forces.

Thus, our honor is but the pledge of our own society.  It is not 
that abstract and obsolete form of honor of which conquerors 
speak to justify their deeds of violence; it is the dignity of a 
peaceful people, which bears hatred toward no other people in 
the world and which never embarks upon a war save only for the 
sake of its freedom and of its life.

Forfeiting our honor would purchase nothing more than a precious 
peace liable to rescission, and when, tomorrow, we should have 
to fight after losing the respect of our allies and the other 
nations, we should no longer be anything more than a wretched 
people doomed to defeat and bondage.

I feel confident that not a single Frenchman harbors such 
thoughts today.  But I well know, too, Gentlemen, that it is 
hard for those who have devoted their whole lives to the cause 
of peace and who are still prompted by a peaceful ideal to 
reply, by force if needed, to deeds of violence.  As head of the 
Government, I am not the man to make an apology for war in these 
tragic hours.  I fought before like most of you.  I can 
remember.  I shall not utter a single one of those words that 
the genuine fighters look upon as blasphemous.  But I desire to 
do my plain duty, and shall do it, as an honorable man.

Gentlemen, while we are in session, Frenchmen are rejoining 
their regiments.  Not one of them feels any hatred in his heart 
against the German people.  Not one of them is giving way to the 
intoxicating call of violence and brutality; but they are ready, 
unanimously, to discharge their duty with the quiet courage 
which derives its inspiration from a clear conscience.

Gentlemen, you who know what those Frenchmen are thinking, you 
who even yesterday were among them in our provincial towns and 
in our countryside, you who have seen them go off - you will not 
contradict me if I evoke their feelings here.  They are peace-
loving men, but they have decided to make every sacrifice needed 
to defend the dignity and freedom of their country.  If they 
have answered our call, as they have done, without a moment's 
hesitation, without a murmur, without flinching, that is because 
they feel, all of them, in the depths of their hearts that it 
is, in truth, whatever may be said, the very existence of France 
that is at stake.

You know better than anyone else that no government, no man, 
would be able to mobilize France merely to launch her into an 
adventure.  Never would the French rise to invade the territory 
of a foreign country.  Theirs is the heroism for defense and not 
for conquest.  When you see France spring to arms it is because 
she feels herself threatened.

It is not France only that has arisen; it is the whole, far-
flung empire under the sheltering folds of our tricolour.  From 
every corner of the globe moving protestations of loyalty from 
all the protected or friendly races are reaching the mother 
country today.  The union of all Frenchmen is thus echoed beyond 
the seas by the union of all people under our protection who in 
the hour of danger are proffering both their arms and their 
hearts.  And I wish also to salute all the foreigners settled on 
our soil, who on this very day in their thousands and thousands, 
as though they were the volunteers of imperiled freedom, are 
placing their courage and their lives at the service of France.

Our duty is to make an end of aggressive and violent 
undertakings; by means of peaceful settlement, if we can still 
do so, and this we shall strive our utmost to achieve, by the 
wielding of our strength, if all sense of morality as well as 
all glimmering of reason has died within the aggressors.

If we were not to keep our pledges, if we were to allow Germany 
to crush Poland, within a few months, perhaps within a few 
weeks, what could we say to France, if we had to face aggressors 
once more?  Then would those most determined soldiers ask us 
what we had done with our friends.  They would feel themselves 
alone, under the most dreadful threat, and might lose, perhaps 
for all time, the confidence which now spurs them on.

Gentlemen, in these hours when the fate of Europe is in the 
balance, France is speaking to us through the voice of her sons, 
through the voice of all those who have already accepted, if 
need be, the greatest sacrifice of all.  Let us recapture, as 
they have done, that spirit which fired all the heroes of our 
history.  France rises with such impetuous impulses only when 
she feels in her heart that she is fighting for her life and for 
her independence.

Gentlemen, today France is in command.

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(2) Telephone communication from Robert Coulondre, French 
Ambassador to Germany, to the French Minister for Foreign 
Affairs (Georges Bonnet), September 3, 1939

I have the honor to confirm as here below the communication 
which I made to Your Excellency by telephone at 1 P.M.

Herr von Ribbentrop returned at noon.  I was received at this 
hour by the State Secretary, but the latter informed me that he 
was not in a position to tell me whether a satisfactory reply 
had been made to my letter of September 1, nor even whether such 
a reply could be given thereto.  He insisted that I should see 
Herr von Ribbentrop himself.  In these circumstances I asked to 
be received by the Minister for Foreign Affairs at the earliest 
possible moment.

I was received by Herr von Ribbentrop at 12:30 P.M.

I asked him whether he could give me a satisfactory reply to my 
letter which I had handed to him on September 1 at 10 P.M.

He replied to me as follows:

"After the delivery of your letter, the Italian Government 
notified the German Government of a proposed compromise, stating 
that the French Government was in agreement.  Later, Signor 
Mussolini intimated to us that the contemplated compromise had 
failed owning to British intransigence.  This morning the 
British Ambassador handed us an ultimatum, due to expire two 
hours later,  We rejected it for the reason which is explained 
in the memorandum which I handed to the British Ambassador today 
and of which I give you a copy.

"If the French Government feels bound by its commitments to 
Poland to enter into the conflict, I can only regret it, for we 
have no feeling of hostility towards France.  It is only if 
France attacks us that we shall fight her, and this would be on 
her part a war of aggression."

I then asked the Minister for Foreign Affairs if I was to infer 
from his utterances that the reply of the Government of the 
Reich to may letter of September 1 was in the negative.  "Yes," 
he replied.

"In these circumstances I must, on behalf of my Government, 
remind you for the last time of the heavy responsibility assumed 
by the Government of the Reich by entering, without a 
declaration of war, into hostilities against Poland and in not 
acting upon the suggestion made by the Governments of the French 
Republic and of His Britannic Majesty to suspend all aggressive 
action against Poland and to declare itself ready to withdraw 
its forces promptly from Polish territory.

"I have the painful duty to notify you that as from today, 
September 3, at 5 P.M., the French Government will find itself 
obliged to fulfill the obligations that France has contracted 
towards Poland, and which are known to the German Government.

" 'Well,' Herr von Ribbentrop remarked, 'it will be France who 
is the aggressor.' "

I replied to him that history would judge of that.

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(3) Statement by Edouard Daladier, Premier, to the Nation, 
September 3, 1939

Men and Women of France.

Since daybreak on September 1, Poland has been the victim of the 
most brutal and most cynical of aggression.  Her frontiers have 
been violated.  Her cities are being bombed.  Her army is 
heroically resisting the invader.

The responsibility for the blood that is being shed falls 
entirely upon the Hitler Government.  The fate of peace is in 
Hitler's hands.  He chose war.

France and England have made countless efforts to safeguard 
peace.  This very morning they made a further urgent 
intervention in Berlin in order to address to the German 
Government a last appeal to reason and request it to stop 
hostilities and to open peaceful negotiations.

Germany met us with a refusal.  She had already refused to reply 
to all the men of goodwill who recently raised their voices in 
favor of the peace of the world.

She therefore desires the destruction of Poland, so as to be 
able to dominate Europe quickly and to enslave France.

In rising against the most frightful of tyrannies, in honoring 
our word, we fight to defend our soil, our homes, our liberties.

I am conscious of having worked unremittingly against the war 
until the last minute.

I greet with emotion and affection our young soldiers, who now 
go forth to perform the sacred task which we ourselves did 
perform before them.  They can have full confidence in their 
chiefs, who are worthy of those who have previously led France 
to victory.

The cause of France is identical with that of Righteousness.  It 
is the cause of all peaceful and free nations.  It will be 
victorious.

Men and Women of France!

We are waging war because it has been thrust on us.  Every one 
of us is at his post, on the soil of France, on that land of 
liberty where respect of human dignity finds one of its last 
refuges.  You will all co-operate, with a profound feeling of 
union and brotherhood, for the salvation of the country.

Vive la France!

Collected and transcribed by
Larry W. Jewell
jewell@mace.cc.purdue.edu