FRANKLIN D. ROOSEVELT. A typed letter signed to Arthur Murra...

Hammer

£1,800

FRANKLIN D. ROOSEVELT. A typed letter signed to Arthur Murray, discussing Germany and a visit to Europe, 2pp. 1938; two letters from Arthur Murray in response. Franklin D. Roosevelt. An typed letter signed to Arthur Murray, Lord Elibank, discussing Germany, 'I begin to think that events in this world move with a velocity which increases with every passing year. Even since your letter, written on January twenty-fourth, so many new things have happened that you are completely out of date! Another crisis in Germany, but it does prove your rightness making unkind remarks about some people who see in Nazi-ism ideals of peace and good-will', or domestic politics, 'I, too, am pursued by catch-cries in this country, and I am in the midst of a long process of education -- and the process seems to be working slowly but surely', and discussing travel plans over the summer, 'My present plan -- if peace remains and if Congress goes home in June -- is to stay in these parts until after my boy John's wedding and the visit of the Crown Prince and Princess of Sweden, about July first, and then take a trip on a cruiser for a month, either in the Pacific or South Atlantic. This means that from the middle of August I shall be up, off and on, at Hyde Park until November...', 2pp., on light blue White House headed paper.

Together with typed letters signed from Arthur Murray in response, the first dated February 20th, commenting on Germany, 'The "velocity" (to which you refer in your letter of Feb. 10), with which world events move, is increasing almost hourly! Al the more reason that our statesmen here should take long views on the European situation, or they will never catch up - much less keep pace with - the changes that confront them as the days pass. But after all there was no reason why they should have been surprised at the latest turn of events, unless indeed they did no believe - as some of us have always believed - that Hitler's eyes had a fixed stare in an easterly and south easterly direction, and that nothing would divert him from his objective', 2pp. on New Club Edinburgh paper, and a further, dated March 26th 1938, accepting an invitation to stay in the autumn, and detailing the escalating political situation in Europe, 'So far as the problem of Italy is concerned, I conceive the greater evil to be that as Germany grew stronger Italy, if left completely within her orbit, would inevitably become an obedient tentacle for the German octopus, and that a German "bloc" from the Baltic to the Mediterranean (and possibly to the Bosphorus and the Black Sea) with all its probabilites of world-hegemony-seeking conflict, would become an accomplished fact', 4pp., on An Cala, Isle of Seil, Argyll headed paper

On February 4th 1938 The Oberkommando der Wehrmacht was established in Nazi Germany by decree, putting Hitler himself in complete control of the military with Wilhelm Keitel as nominal commander-in-chief. The new command structure abolished the position of War Minister, and twelve senior generals were sent into retirement. On February 12th, Austrian Chancellor Kurt Schuschnigg went to see Hitler in Berchtesgaden. Schuschnigg tried to open the meeting with light conversation about the beauty of the view, but Hitler brushed such talk aside and began a tirade of shouting, threatening to invade unless his demands compromising Austria's sovereignty were met. *Condition Report Stapled upper left. **BP 22.5% (inc. VAT) + a lot fee of £8 (inc. VAT) on each lot. VAT is not applicable on books and unframed maps.