London Negotiations of 1939

secret negotiations between representatives of the ruling circles of Great Britain and fascist Germany in June-August 1939.

Undertaken at the initiative of the British during the time of the Moscow negotiations of 1939 between the USSR, Great Britain, and France on a joint struggle against German aggression, the London negotiations were an attempt at broad Anglo-German agreement on political and economic issues. The British proposals provided for the division of spheres of political and economic influence with fascist Germany on conditions of recognition of special German interests in Eastern and Southeastern Europe and the rights of Great Britain in its colonial possessions. (In this regard, the USSR and China were included in the sphere of Anglo-German economic “cooperation.”) The possibility of agreeing on colonial issues (for example, German participation in exploitation of the “African colonial zone”) by reviewing certain articles of the Versailles Treaty of 1919 was contemplated. The British proposed the conclusion of a nonaggression pact (with statements by both sides renouncing aggression) along with the simultaneous abrogation of Great Britain’s guarantees to the countries of Eastern and Southeastern Europe (including Poland).

The London negotiations reflected the attempt of British ruling circles to direct fascist aggression against the countries of Eastern Europe and the USSR. The actual refusal of fascist Germany to discuss British proposals precluded further development of the negotiations. The profundity of Anglo-German imperialist contradictions and, specifically, the striving of fascist Germany for world hegemony were the basic reasons for failure of the London negotiations.