PAGE 4-HONGKONG TELEGRAPH
Thursday, MAY 2, 1940.
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„REOD, TRADE MARK
GOEKING intervened with the Fuchrer ...
flenderson liked Goering, "A man to whom one
could always sprak absolutely frankly." Detore war, Goering promised to send a special wreath if Sir Nevile got bombed in London..
GOERING
ACCUSES RIBBENTROP
YESTERDAY, Sir Nevile Henderson, British Ambassador in Berlin until the outbreak of war, revealed how Hitler cheated Chamberlain at their meeting at Godesberg.
TO-DAY, continuing his revelations concerning the Czech-German crisis of September, 1938, he tells of Sir Horace Wilson's mission; of a procession which changed the Fuehrer's mind; of a quarrel between Goering and Ribbentrop; and of Italy's eleventh-hour intervention.
N Monday, September 26, the Prime Minister sent Sir Horace Wilson to Berlin with a personal letter to Hit-
ler.
In this, after stating that the German proposals, as they stood, had been rejected by the Czech Government, he again urged the Chancellor, since the difference was one of form and not of principle, to agree to negotiate rather than to resort to force.
He suggested a direct meet- Germans and ing between Czechs with a British presentative as intermediary.
re-
Sir 11. Wilson, accompanied by Kirkpatrick and myself, saw the Chancellor at 5 that afternoon. This intervice also was stormy and unsatisfactory.
Herr Hitler could only with difficulty be persuaded to listen
to the Prime Minister's letter.
110
At one point he shouted: "It is
nse talking any more," and
he moved to the door as if to leave the room.
Eventually he returned, and the conversation was restmed, but it was impossible to reach any satis- fuctory conclusion.
On the same evening lie made a speech in the Sportpalast.
It contained a savage attack on Beneš
personally, and in it he
finally burnt his boats by declaring that, if the Czech Government themselves had not coded all the Sudeten lands by October 1, Ger- many would occupy them by that date. with himself as the first
soldier of the Iteich.
At the same time he made an appeal for British neutrality by
friendly references to Mr. Cham- berlain's efforts for peace.
Chamberlain's
warning
Sir Horace Wilson spent that night in the Embassy, and in De course of it received instructions to dellver yet another personal message.
Therein Mr. Chamberlain, wille acknowledging the references to himself in Hitler's speech, guar- anteed, if Germany refrained from force, to see that the Czech under- takings, already given, would be carried out,
Sir It. Wilson accordingly saw 1ller for the second time at 12.15 on the morning of September 27.
He asked the Charicellor If, in the light of the Prime Minister's statement, be could take any message back to London.
Hitler replied that the Crecha- Slovak Government had only two acceptance of the Ger- courses: man memorandum; or rejection.
In the course of this conversa- tion
Hitler shouted savagely on two or three occasions: "Ich werde die Tschechen Zerschlagen," which Interpreter. Herr Schmidt, the fallfully translated As: "I wil smash-sh-sh the Czechs!"
He showed by his demeanour that he was longing to chastise
Czechs for their insolence; bombe mast fall on Prague; the Czech army must be put to rout;
the
Dr. Benes 'musi lenominious fight.
be forced to
Late in the afternoon of Sep- tember 27 I had been advised by the Foreign Office by telephone that instructions were on their way to me for yet another com- munication to the Chancellor.
I accordingly. made arrange- ments to meet the State Secretary at the Ministry for Foreign Affairs at 11 that night, and landed to Jim a
a note for immediate transli- tion and subinission to Hitler.
10
It contained proposals, agreed by the French Government and Transmitted to Prague, pressing Sudeten territories on the basis of the immediate transfer pf the the Czech Government to agree to AJ timetable guaranteed by His Majesty's Government.
When it was clear that Hitler's How war
determination to go to war was quite inflexible. Sir H. Wilson Said that he was charged by the Prime Minister to give him a message to the following effect:
"I in pursuit of her Treaty - obligations, France became ac tively engaged ነጋ hostilities United against Germany, the Kingdom would feel obliged to support her."
Hitler's answer was that he could only take note of this com- munication. It meant, he said, that if France elected to attack Germany, England felt obliged to attack Germany also.
Sir H. Wilson attempted to re- Mixti: this interpretation of his statement, but Hitler declined to be convinced,
Hitler gets lesson
a
"If France and England strike." he shouted, "let them do so. It is
a matter of complete indifference I am prepared for every to me. eventuality. I can only take note of the position. It is Tuesday to- day, and by next Monday we shall all be at war."
On this depressing note the in- terview ended.
Sir Korave flew back to London carly the same afternoon. Never- theless, his effect, and I was offi- ciaby informed that night by the State Secretary that Hitler had ad- dressed, through the German Em- bassy in London,
an immediate and impurtant personal letter to the Prime Minister.
In this he attempted to justify his attitude, and begged Mr. Chamberlain to 'continue to use his good offres.
assurance
Therein he Rave the Prime Minister the definite which he was so cynically to disre- gard six months later, to the effect that, once the Sudeten Germans were incorporated in the, Reich, he would cease to be interested in the Czechs and would do nothing to fa- fringe their independence.
A
chance
Ind, as I hap- episode pens, produced salutary revul-
mind. ston in Hitler's
In the afternoon of that Tues-
a mechanised day,
division had rumbled
through streets of
Be Berlin and up
up the Wilhelmstrasse past the Chancellor's window and those of Embassy.
the
£
For Utrec hours Hitler stood at his window and watched it pass. The Germans love military display, but not a single individual in the streets applauded its passage.
The picture which it repre- sented was almost that of a hos- ille aring passing through a con- quered city.
Hlller was deeply impressed.
At that moment, he realised for the first time that the cheers of his sycophants were for from repre- senting the true spirit and feelings of the German people.
These extracts are taken from the book by Sir Nevile Henderson entitled "Failure of a
Mission," published by Messrs. Hodder & Stoughton, Ltd.
postponed
was
The first arças were to be handed over on October 1, and the creation of an international boundary commission for the set- Blement of details was also sug- gested.
The proposals went far to meet. Hitler's demands, and in the end they constituted the main basis of the final settlement at Munich.
With faint hope. I retired to bed the Tuesday night realising that. if nothing new intervened. the announced general mobilisa- tion of the German army would take place the following day at 2 p.
ብዛ$1
RIBBENTROP
was accused by
Geering of in-
citing to war.
Henderson found Goebbels "the most intelli- gent of all the Nazi lenders" and was "charmed both by the antural fluency of his manner of spending and his extremely agreeable voice."
Sir Nevile Henderson
At a meeting of Hitler and his advisers there had been some plain speaking, in which Goering had vehemently accused Ribbentrop of Inciting to wor,
Among other things, it was re- lated that Goering shouted that he knew what war was and he did not want to go through it again.
If, however, the Fuehrer sald "March," he would go himself in the first and leading aeroplane. All Dist he insisted upon was that Ribbentrop should be in the sent next to him.
or something He did say this, like it, but it was not in the Fuchrer's presence.
But I believe that did call Ribbentrop on that occasion a criminal fool."
Nor, of the various factors which induced Hitler to abandon his
Since the army was already concentrated and mobilised, In effect. this meant the beginningiden ot-o Czech-war, was Goering's. of the march into Czecho-Slova- kla.
I
at 7 the next was aroused morning
M. (Wednesday) by Francois-Poncet, the French Am bassador. who informed me telephone that his instructions to nake a similar communication to mine had reached him at 4
at 4 a.m.
Three hours later, at 10 am, he rang me up again to say that he feared the worst, since he had had no answer to his request for an audience and probably would not
now receive one.
I told him
that I would come and see him at 10.30.
I then asked to be put into com- munication with Goering by tele- phone, and was able to get into immediate touch with him. Fortu- nately the telephone was working well everywhere on that critical day.
*
I began to describe the pro- posals, but Goering cul me short. "You need not," he said, “kay a word more. I am golog im- mediately to see the Fuehrer."
I then went round to see the French Ambassador, and while we were discussing the new proposals a message came from the Reichs- chancellery that Hitler would see Francois-Poncet at 11.15.
Simultaneously a secretary brought round to me at the French Embassy a telegram from London, instructing me to give immediate-
ly a final personal message from the Prime Minister to Hitler him-
self.
Its gist was that, after reading Hiller's letter of the previous evening. Mr. Chamberlain was still convinced that Germany could ob- tain her essential requirements without resort to war, and that he was ready to come to Berlin at once himself in order to discuss the whole question with Hitler and with representatives of France and Italy.
Did Hitler, it concluded, wish to Lake the responsibility of starting a world war for the sake of a few days' delay in wefiling the problem?
It is worth recalling the exact sequence of events on that critical day. Goering went to see Hiller between 10.15 and 11.15 and was Joined there by Neurath, who had forced his way in uninvited. Both were in favour of a ful solution by negotiation.
peace-
intervention the least important.
Then came the Poncet interview, in the middle of which, at 11.40 a.m., Hitler left the room to see the Italian Ambassador, who had arrived with a preliminary urgent appeal from Mussolini for the post- panement of the so-called general mobilisation for twenty-four hours.
The Italian intervention proved the final and decisive factor for peace. I enabled Hitler to climb down without losing face.
His first remark to me when I
him
at 12.15. iminediately aller Poncet, was: "At the request of any great friend and ally, Mus- sulini, I have postponed mobilising my troops for twenty-four hours.'
Mussolini
intervenes
Before actually seeing Hitler himself, I had, however, realised that die situation had taken o turn for the better. When I en- tered the Chancellery, there was an atmosphere of relief in the faces of the less bellicose of the crowd of Nazi soldiers and aldes-de-camp who filled the hall.
One friend of mine whispered in my car: "It is going better: only stick to it”
Instalment 10 ·
Peace
reached the Reichschancellery that morning.
hind been ensured when Hitler agreed at Mussolin's re- quest at 11.40 a..-exnetly two hours and twenty minutes before zero hour-lo postpone his called general mobilisation.
[Copyright In all countries Reproduction in whole or in part strictly prohibited.]
50-
To-morrow: Munich-the · Pogroms -Hitler disobeys his Voice -Heil, Jekyll and Hyde!
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I was at once ushered Into Hit- Ter's Cabinet room, where I met Goering and Neurath on their way of, the
out
I gave Hiller the Prime Minis- ter's message, and his reply was
Hongkong
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Mussolini before giving me a de- finite answer.
We discussed fairly amicably the
Research
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the
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My Interview with him, which lasted over an hour, was also in- terrupted by a second visit from
Manager,
Edited by
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