The German White Book
The German White Book, containing documents alleged to have been found among the Polish Foreign Office archives at Warsaw, is another example of the mischief which German propaganda so laboriously and ingeniously disseminates. Whether it is all forgery, or a subtle mingling of fact with fiction, is a matter which awaits further inquiry. The case for maintaining that it is a fabrication from first to last is supported by the facts that the Poles claim to have removed all relevant documents before they withdrew, and that there are no copies of any of the correspondence from which it professes to quote in official files in Paris or London or Washington. The main purpose of the publication is to convict the United States Administration of encouraging the French and British to resist Germany by promises of American assistance. Mr. Bullitt, the American Ambassador in Paris, is represented as having given a moral assurance that the United States would take an active part on the side of Great Britain and France. Americans have put many pertinent questions. Why, for example, was this book, known to have been ready at least two months ago, only launched after the return of Mr. Sumner Welles from Europe and the realisation that he could do nothing for Germany? Is it an attempt to discredit President Roosevelt and give his political enemies a handle against him? But American isolationism cuts both ways. If it does not like the United States interfering in Europe, neither does it like Germany attempting to interfere in its own elections. The White Book may turn out to be a boomerang.
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