represent the action of the German troops as a police operation rather than as the beginning of a campaign, and that he avoided the word "war."

THIS afternoon M. Beck received the Slovak Minister, who authorized him to publish a letter in which M. Szathmary protests "in the name of the Slovak nation," now dominated by brute force and powerless, against the aggression directed by Germany against "Poland, a friendly nation."

M. BECK has just made the following reply to Your Excellency's communication:

"We are in the thick of war, as the result of unprovoked aggression. The question before us is not of a conference but that the common action which should be taken by the Allies to resist. I have heard nothing, moreover, from any quarter of the Italian plan."

M.I had asked to be received together. Herr von Ribbentrop preferred to receive us separately.

Text of the communication handed over on September 1, 1939, at 10 p.m. by M. Coulondre, French Ambassador in Berlin, to Herr von Ribbentrop

Excellency,

According to instructions from the French Minister for Foreign Affairs, I have the honour to submit the following statement:

Early this morning, the German Chancellor issued a proclamation to the German army which gave clear evidence that he was just about to attack Poland.

Information which has reached the French Government and His Majesty's Government in the United Kingdom goes to show that troops have crossed the Polish frontier and that attacks are now being made on Polish towns.

This being so, it would seem to the French and British Governments that by its