[14] However, Stresemann's offer of a better Franco-German relations, especially in the economic sphere, together with the total German unwillingness to accept the frontiers with Poland, led Briand to decide to ignore the Polish concerns.

[16] Massigli added that he had the impression that Zaleski's actions were motivated by the desire to show the Poles that their government was at least trying to end what they considered a double standard that Locarno did not apply to Eastern Europe.

[12] From 1929 to 1935, he headed the department of the Quai d'Orsay concerned with the League of Nations, as he believed that collective security provided a means in which France could rally the world against any future German aggression.

[22] French Prime Minister André Tardieu embraced Beneš's plan as forming the basis of a fédération danubienne (Danubian federation), which would not only mitigate the effects of the Great Depression but also be a step for peace in Eastern Europe.

[31] An attempt to tie acceptance of an "Eastern Locarno" pact to a French return to the World Disarmament Conference, on the grounds that it would lead to difficult questions in the House of Commons, led Barthou to retort that he did not care.

[34] Massigli regarded the vague British promise to come to France's aid in the event of a German attack, coupled with staff talks of very limited scope, as most unsatisfactory substitutes for the "continental commitment".

[41] On 29 September 1938, Massigli followed Prime Minister Édouard Daladier to Munich as part of the French delegation, and upon his return to Paris, witnessing the vast cheering crowds, he wrote in a letter, "Poor people, I am overwhelmed with shame".

[48] Massigli argued to his superiors in Paris that it was Germany, not Turkey, that was the major danger to France and that having a large number of French troops in Syria to guard against a Turkish attack was simply an unneeded distraction.

[52] In 1939, Massigli was heavily preoccupied with competition with the German ambassador, Franz von Papen, in an effort to secure Turkish adherence to the Allied side in the event of war breaking out.

As part of the effort to increase French influence on the Turkish government, Massigli arranged for the visit of General Maxime Weygand to Turkey in early May 1939, which was made into a state event.

[64] In April 1940, Massigli in a dispatch to Paris recommended that British and French planes based in Syria and Iraq should starting bombing Baku, and at the same time issue a formal apology to Turkey for violating Turkish air place, which would allow the Turks to pretend that they had not given permission for the raids.

In the summer of 1940, the Germans published all of the French documents relating to Operation Pike and so Massigli's dispatches urging the Allies bomb Baku became public, making him briefly the center of international attention.

On 5 August 1940, Massigli left the French Embassy in Ankara for the last time with what was described as a "large and very sympathetic" crowd of ordinary Turks to see him off as he was popular in Turkey for his role in helping to resolve the Alexandretta dispute.

[17] In November 1942, when Germany occupied the unoccupied zone in southern France, the SS Hauptsturmführer Klaus Barbie, Gestapo chief of Lyon, issued an order for his arrest, forcing Massigli to go underground.

[68] Immediately afterwards, Massigli was at the eye of a storm in an Anglo-French crisis when Churchill tried to stop de Gaulle from visiting the Middle East under the grounds that would make trouble for the British.

[68] After Pierre Viénot, who served as the de facto ambassador to Britain, died in July 1944, Massigli expressed the wish to Eden to take over his position, saying he was not a political man and was uncomfortable with the hostile questions in the Consultative Assembly and with quarreling with Palewski.

[68] When Massigli arrived in London, he was unable to present his credentials to King George VI at Buckingham Palace owing to the ambiguity about whether the Committee of National Liberation was the government of France.

[83] The victory of the Labour Party in the 1945 election and the replacement of Sir Anthony Eden with Ernest Bevin as Foreign Secretary did not presage any great difficulties in Anglo-French relations in Massigli's view.

[84] An angry Bevin snapped that France was supporting returning Libya to Italy with no thought for the "40,000 British dead" who were killed in North Africa, and that stated that there would be no Anglo-French alliance until the French accepted that the Ruhr would remain part of Germany.

[84] Despite his doubts about Britain by this time, Massigli approved when Blum arrived in London to take up Duff Cooper's offer, which the British were too embarrassed to admit was something that he done without orders and led to the Treaty of Dunkirk on 4 March.

[88] Massigli was also opposed to the Schuman Plan because it came from outside of the Quai d'Orsay, writing that Monnet as l’inspirateur was not a diplomat who functioned only a "technocrate" and an "autocrat" who was unable to understand France's national interests properly.

Massigli's vision of a European defense depended on two strands, securing the "continental commitment" from Britain and keeping very strict controls on any military force that West Germany might possess.

[90] Massigli told Bevin that to avoid the impression in France that Britain was "still governed by the spirit of Dunkirk" that the British should station military forces on French soil and open regular staff talks.

[90] Finally, Massigli warned that French public opinion would not like the idea of West German rearmament only five years after 1945, and if the Western powers allowed it, it was bound to cause a reaction that would only benefit the Soviets.

[91] Massigli was especially worried when learned from the Quai d'Orsay's Political Director, Roland de Margerie, of the disorganisation within the French cabinet and of the lack of studies about the implications of the Pleven Plan.

"[92] The return of the Conservatives to power following the October 1951 election did not change Anglo-French relations very much as Massigli noted that the views of Churchill and Eden (once again Prime Minister and Foreign Secretary) were not much different from Attlee and Bevin's.

[94] Schumann dismissed Massigli's advocacy of a "co-federal solution" as giving too much power to rearmed West Germany, and felt that some sort of "European" control over a German army was necessary to protect France.

[95] Massigli advised Eden to seriously consider his proposals and told Strang that the French people would not understand why France was being asked to sacrifice control of their armed forces for the sake of European unity while the British were not.

[95] In a visit to Paris, Massigli told President Vincent Auriol that he would resign in protest if the EDC treaty came into effect, saying it was foolish for France to continue defending the "folie totale" of a European Army.

[99] The historian Rogelia Pastor-Castro wrote that the resolution of the West German rearmament question was a "personal success" for Massigli as the crisis was ended along the lines that he had suggested at the Chartwell summit.