PAGE 4-HONGKONG TELEGRAPH
SIR NEVILE
NEARLY 3,000,000 Ger!... mans lived in the Sudeten lands of Czecho-Slovakia. Led by Conrad Henlein, most of them wore pro- Hitler.
After the rape of Aus- tria (sco Saturday's in- stalment), Czecho- -Slovakia was in a hopeless position strategically. Bri- tain and France advised her to come to terms with Henlein, if possible.
For two months, an agreement was sought. But then, in May, 1938, another Crisis burst..
Sir Nevile Henderson, British Ambassador in Berlin until the outbreak of war, tells to-day the secrets of those dramatic days.
THE
E situation in the Sude- ten lands was gradually deteriorating. Incidents of a more or less serious nature had become matters of daily
becurrence,
A German Press campaign had reached such a pitch that it was but natural to believe, especially after the recent example of Austria, another German lightning coup was impending.
All the materials for an ex- thus present plosion were when rumours began to spread of a German concentration on the Czech frontier.
- On receipt of circumstantial report tot effect from Prague and elsewhere on May 20, 1 tin- mediately called on the Sovretory of State. Baron von Weirsacker, and worked him to tell me whether there WAN any truth it these stories.
Country scoured
for proof
He dented them, but I asked him to leleplione to General Keitel on my beliult, to remind 'bing of the false information supplied tự the Military. Attache of 11.M. Embassy, before the Invasion of Austria, and to ask the generaí to acquaint me authoritatively with the facts.
An hour later, Baron von Welz- sucker assured me, extegorically on the word of General Kellel, that the tales of troop concentrations were absolute nonsense.
Similar assurances were given lu the Czech Minister in Berlin as well as to the Czech Government in Prague.
-Du! - the-attitude-of-the-German Press and the precedent of Aus- colour to the wildest tria lent
and the reports from rumours, Prague. regard to German troop movements became more und more detailed.
IT fairness to the Czechs, it must be realised that much abnormal military activity was continually going on in Germany and that un- skilled agents and observers can
be misled. easily be
morning of May 21, I be- On the cordingly sent both the British military attaches on an extensive military reconnaissance through Saxony
Silesin (Colonel) Mason-Macfarlane actually cover- ed 700 and Major Strong some 500 mites by car between one dawn and the next).
and
They could discover no sign of unusual or significant German military activity, nor, indeed, could any of the military attachés of other foreign missions in Berlin.
"They will be exterminated!"
But the fat was in the fire: full credence was, not unnaturally, at- tached abroad to the Czech stories, and I spent most of May 21 at the Ministry for Foreign Affairs, regia- tering protests on behal
behalf of His Majesty's Government and official- ly confirming the warning given in the House of Commons by the Prime Minister on March 24.
(This warning declared that "if war broke out, it would, be unlikely to be confined" to those who had assumed direct
obliga- tions).
Mysorat interview with Herr von Ribbentrop on May 21 proved the occasion for a certain amount of acrimony on both alles.
Owing to a regrettable indiscrH- tion, one of the British newspapers had quoted General Keitel by name as having denied to me the reports of German troop movements.
Ribbentrop, who was doubtless offended that I should seek infor- mation from novo
nuyone except him- self, began by complaining of this, and and in consequence no mill- information would ever in tary future he communicated to me.
I retorted that I could only in- fer from his attitude that General Kellel's Information to me had been incorrect, and that I would feel obliged to report to that effect to my Government,
HENDERSON.
INSTALMENT SEVEN
Ribbentrúp with his young daughter. Ursula,
Ribbentrop
THREATENS
WOMEN and CHILDREN
He thereupon turned in wrath
to the accidentul murder of twe Germans near Eger, and used as regards the Czechs the most re- prehensibly bloodthirsty lait- guage.
When
I observed that, while the death of two Germans was greatly-to-be-deplored-it-was-bet- ter that two should die rather than hundreds of thousands in war, his only reply was that every Gerinan was ready to die for his country.
Incidentally, I believe that the of his language on unsuitability this occh
occasion earned for ha ณ reprimand from his master, and for some time thereafter he re- mnined out of favour.
He was to get back again Into it when, later in the crisis, his com forting assurances that England would never fight were to give that master the encouragement which he needed for the prosecu-
polley bis tion of
in September. case, Hibbentrop's t- In any litude on the morning of May 21 did nothing to ease the strain, and on the same afternoon I saw him u second time, an instructions from London.
notified him of the action which His Majesty's Government were taking in Prague with a view to inducing the Czech Government to come to a settlement direct with Henlein.
Then I warned His Excellency that France had definite obliga- tions to Czecho-Slovakia, and that, If these had to be fulfilled. His Majesty's Governinent could not guarantee but they would not be forced by events to become them- selves involved.
Ribbentrop sulks
Ribbentrop, who had been high- ly excitable in the morning, hind become sullon in the afternoon.
His attitude (doubtless on ordera from Hitler, for whom the point continued to be a bitter one til the end) was that all remon- strances should be addressed to Prague, and not to Berlin, and he declined to give to Henlein any advice on the lines of that which we were giving to the Czech Gov- ernment.
ensued, it
"If a general war would," he said, "be a war of ug- gression provoked by France, and Germany would fight as she had done in 1914." He repeated this phrase constantly in September,
Finally, on the Sunday, I con- vered to him through the State (Ribbentrop having Secretary left Berlin by then) a personal fron Lors Halifax,
message
drawing his attention to the risk of precipitate action leading to a
general conflagration, the only result of which might prove to be the destruction of European civilisation.
So far as 'official action went, this ended the so-called May 21 incident at Berlin.
By the Monday morning all but the-most-Intractable had become convinced that the stories of Ger- man troop concentrations were in fact untrue.
Special train for Embassy staff
on
The municipal elections in Czecho-Slovakia the Sunday
without further. had passed off bloodshed and to the complete satisfaction of the Henlein party, and things might have been ex- pected to resume a nor
a normal course. Before explaining why they did It is necessary here to men- not, it tion minor feature of this crisis, feature which, utterly unim- portant in itself, was given wide publicity, and which I quote be- certain cause it actually had bearing on subsequent events.
I refer to the story of the special train.
As it happens, the Naval Attache to the British Embassy was pro- reeding on May 21 on normal leave with his whole familly. A member of my staff regarded this as a good opportunity to send his own small children away.
011
cou
He was informed by the Railway Company that there was no room
the train, but that an extra conch would be added, provided it could be filled. Two other mem- bers of my staff were accordingly persuaded to enrol their families for the exodus, and thus the conchi was Alled and
ordered.
would be one of my Service At- tuches, that he was going ordinary leave of absence, and that I did not propose to prevent his doing so,, but that I would cer
railway tainly cancel the extra carriage and forbid the departure other members of my staff. any Looking back in the light of subsequent events, all this seems rather childish, but I should Uka to take thin
to dis- opportunity claim any attempt in the May crisis of 1038 to emulate Disrnell's coup at the Berlin Congress.
of
pushed him defalislý· over the borderlino fram- peaceful nego- Untion to the use of force.
From May 23 to May 28 his fli of sulks and fury lasted, and on the latter dale lio gave orders for, a gradust mobilisation of the army which should be prepared for all
The eventusliites in autumn.
He had made up his vindictive mind ta avengo himself upon Benes and the Czechs,
Once again it was a case of those within his power paying for the humiliation which others Track enused him,
At the ame time, in order to protect himself from any possible reaction on the part of France, he initiated
monumental and
1110,
costly work known as the West Wall in Germany, and abroad us the Siegfried Line.
It cost Germany £750 millions, and the expense of it added to Hitler's resentment,
He went so for on May 20 us to fix October 1 as the netual date for the Czech crisis.
Czechs "fatally encouraged"
Looking back on the past, ope reallyes how little justified by actual facts was the so-called vic- tory of May. 21.
The Genuans had never mobil- ised, nor, though their own news- papers and the recent invasion of Austria were greatly responsible for the illusion, had they actually any intention at that time of a "coup" for which they were
not
yet ready and witich, they real- ised, required infinitely greater and more, enreful preparations than had been necessary In the case of Austria.
We had cried "Wolf" prema- turely, but the fact of the mutter was that the world had already lost all confidence in Hitler's good faith, and the liveliness of the
ar seems to general anxiety was the measure
Wa
have begun"
The fact was that everybody's nerves were already worn pretty threadbare aven nt
carly ปาก
slage.
Iron quoting I cannot refrain another small story in evidence of this.
von
I dined on the night of the 21st with Frau
Dirksen, step- mother of the German Ambassa-
and dor in London
a friend of Hitler's.
The French Ambassador was also there, and in the course of dinner Lite municipal authoriller suddenly began nearby to demolish with the re- dynamite a small hotel. moval of which was included in Hitler's scheme for the rebuilding of Berlin.
1
I lennt across my hostess and remarked to Francois-Ponect that the war seemed to have begun.
Σε is doubtful it the remark was a well-chosen one at that moment, and it
it was possibly a poor example _of_humour.
Several months Inter, Goering"
to me, said
**You were yourself May pretty
scared during the crisis." I asked him why he be lieved this and he repeated the above
hnd been story which seriously retailed to him at the time.
explained that I tu only meant as a joke. Whereupon Goering replied that he himself happened to be in Berlin that night, and had forgotten that the demolition was to take place.
"When," he said, "I heard the Immediate first explosion. my reaction was those cursed Crechs have begun it?"
If Goering could have jumped to such a conclusion, it is not strange that other people should have had misgivings.
Hitler swears
vengeance
The story is at the same time Do illuminating one in regard to German mentally.
When we were thinking only that Germany was on the point of attacking the Czechs, the Germans were apprehensive lest the latter nicunt to provoke a European war before they themselves were ready for it.
tantly
even-
the
of that complete mistrust.
Moreover, the upshot of Press campaign was unfortunately twofold.
Not only did it serve as an ex- cuse for Hitler to come down on the side of the extremists, and to approve once again of solutions by force,
but it also fatally
en- couraged the Czechs to believe that their position was secure, and Benes in his reluctance to go for enough to Halisfy the Sudeten Germans.
[Copyright. Reproduction in whole or in part strictly prohibited.]
TO-MORROW: Czech crisis flares up again— Premier flies to Berchtes-
gaden-"there will be little of London left standing" -Goering,
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at Berlin, was unfortunate enough. CONCERT. AIDS B.W.O.F. | Bodyguard To Shanghai line of Chios Lights (old) at $3
As I said before, things might have been expected to resume a normal course after the scare of the May week-end.. That they did not was no doubt partly due to I first learn of this develop- the attitude of the foreign Press.
of the from the ment when I returned
The publicity of impressive Ministry
official warning given, as it stry for Foreign Affairs about found the French midday, and
proved, without due cause Ambassador on my doorstep, in- quiring whether it was true that I
of the The defiant gesture was evacuating the whole of the Czechs in mobilising some 170,000 British Colony.
to troops and then proclaiming the world that it
their action WAB
At Peninsula. which had turned Hitler from his purpose was equally regrettable.
The spacious lounge of the Penin- nol what Hitler could
sula Hotel was fully occupied last stomach was the exultation of the
night when a large number of people Fress. The protagonists of collec-attended a military band concert in ald of the British War Organisation tive recurity proclaimed the vic- tory of their system. Every newR
Fund. paper in Europe and America joined in the chorus,
The news had by this time even got ns far as London, and I re- ceived imultaneously an urgent telephone message from the For eign Oftee, requesing me to can- cel the arrangements made to this effect.
I had hardly put the telephone down when the State Secretary rong me up from the Ministry for Foreign Affairs, telling me that he had received n number of Embassy passports for visar and begging me. not to
an alarmist.
be
I told Baron von Weizsacker that I had only Just learnt myself of this unfortunate coincidence, that one of the last persons whom
I would allow to leave in a crisis.
But
"No" had been sald, and Hitler had been forced to yield. The democratic Powers had brought the totalitarian States to heel, etc., etc.
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Shanghai, Apr. 28, Two Chinese gunmen to-day ahol Mr. W, B. Caring, 53, and killed
at the home of British watchman
member of the Mr. G. A. Haley, Municipal Coutell and director of Imperial Chemical Industries (China), Ltd., when he challenged the Chinese, Electrics who were trespassing on Mr. Haley's property.
Recently there have been rumours
threats Ossassination
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of
The evening's excellent entertain-it was usual for the Councillors to ment niso included items by Gus be escorted by bodyguards since the d'Aquino (tenor), Peter Esdaicaft recent elections.
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Mr. Carine formerly worked. in
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and served in the British Navy dur
It was, above all, this fablia- tion which says. Hitler the ex- ⋅ (violin); Geo Pio-Ulaki, Art Carneiro Mr. Haley's home is in the disput- Ing the world war. He leaves, a case for his third
wife and Terry Lucido (accordeon) and ed extra-Settlement road area. Ho Chinese
and brainstorm of the year, and Muriel Portallion (contraito),
refused to comment on the incident. Shanghai-finited Press.
and
workt
daughter In