ADSS 1.124 Osborne to Sec State: UK positive on Pope's speech

ADSS 1.124 D’Arcy Osborne, UK Minister to the Holy See, to the Secretariat of State

Reference: AES 6823/39

Location and date: Rome, 25.08.1939

Summary statement: Pope’s message on behalf of peace appreciated by UK gov’t and people.

Language: French

Text:

The British Minister to the Holy See has been instructed by Lord Halifax to inform His Eminence the Cardinal Secretary of State personally, or even to His Holiness the Pope himself, how the Government of His Britannic Majesty has highly appreciated the dignified and mobbing appeal for peace that His Holiness has addressed to the world on the evening of 24 August.

Lord Halifax, who made reference to the Holy Father’s message in his own radio broadcast of the same evening, wishes that His Holiness be directly informed of the touched and grateful reception that his noble words found in the hearts and minds of the members of His Majesty’s Government and of the people of Great Britain. (1)

Notes: 

(1) DBFP, Series 3, Volume 7, n281, p227.  In his telegram of 25.08.1939, sent at 17.15, Lord Halifax instructed Osborne to convey to the Pope “that His Majesty’s Government have much appreciated the moving and dignified appeal for peace (of) His Holiness …”