PAGE 4-HONGKONG TELEGRAPH
Sir Nevile Henderson
INSTALMENT 11
YESTERDAY, Sir Nevile Henderson, British Ambassador in Berlin until the outbreak of war, told how the Czech- German quarrel reached its zenith in September, 1938, and how war LVAS averted at the eleventh hour.
TO-DAY he deals with the Munich Agreement ... and Hitler's chagrin after that historic treaty.
T
HE meeting of the four statesmen at the new Brown House at Munich began at 1.30 p.m. on September 29. Mussolini had arrived by train from Rome, and Daladier by air from Paris, shortly before the Prime Minister. All three were enthusiastically acclaimed by the German people who filled the atreets,
Their discussions ended thirteen hours later at 2:30 on, the Friday morning. At no stage of the conversations did they be- come heated.
The presence of Mussolini acted as a brake on Hitler, and the fact that the former had tactfully put forward as his own a combination of Hitler's and the Anglo-French proposals, thereby defeat- ing the intention of Ribbentrop, who was anxious to put forward a scheme of his own, made general agreement casier all round.
It was largely the necessity for trans- Iation into three. languages, English, French, and German, which, together with the difficulties of hasty drafting, delayed the conclusion. Mussolini was the only one of the four statesmen who could speak and understand all three languages. The final agree- ment was reached subatan- tially on the llues of the Godosberg memorandum, na modified by the final Anglo- French plan.
Germany thus incorporated the Sudeten lands in the Relch with- out bloodshed and without firing a shot. But she had not got all that Hitler wanted and which she would have got if the arbitrament had been left to war - namely, the strategical frontler which so many Germans desired.
Goering's promise
Czecho-Slovakia had lost and a bit more territories which It would probably have been wher not to have Included at Versailles in the Czech State, and which could never, except on the basis of federation, have remained perman- ently therein.
I left Munich before the Prime Minister had his final meeting alone with Hitler and drew up and algned the Anglo-German declara- tion of September 30.
Early that
the French morning and Italian Ambassadors, together with the German State Secratury and myself, flew back to Berlin, and the first meeting of the Inter- national Commission set up under the Munich Agreement was actu- ally held the same afternoon at 6.30.
Its meetings constituted the final scene of the second act of the drama.
The tasks delegated to the Am- bassadors were ungrateful in prin- ciple and most distasteful in detail.
I had made up my mind before the first meeting began that the best hope for Czecho-Slovakia lay
HITLER disobeys his "VOICE"
Mr. Neville Chamberlain returning to Eng- land from the famous Munich Conference.
Last head of the old Germany. President von Hindenburg (centre) reluctantly calls on Hitler to form a Government. Goer- ing, trusted by both Army and Nazis, the man who brought them together, Hitler still wears top-hat and striped trousers. But soon Hindenburg will be dead, litier will be the Fuhrer in uniform, and Goering will be at his right hand.
Sudeten, which he had solemnly assured Mr. Chamberlain was his sole object, It was still permissibic at least to hope that he might treal friendly disposed Czech Government with some generosity and fairness.
Nevertheless, I left for Eng- the middle of October Jand
about thoroughly disheartened, and if
I had been a free agent I would never have returned to Berlin.
The Hitlerinn methods had been
ill-treatment of the Jews such as the Middle Ages could scarcely equal.
even
They did so at the instigation of Dr. Goebbels' propaganda 'press, and with the connivance and actual participation of Himmler's secret police and extreme Nazis.
The exaggerated and inhuman, revenge which the Germans took was, however, from their own point of view. an act of incredible,
too much in evidence recently for stupidity, comparable in its effect
me to feel otherwise than gusted.
dis-
in direct negotiation, where pos Nazis go back
ble, with Germany, and that ple- biscites, which could only lead to trouble, should be avoided at all
cost.
I did my best to ensure both those objectives. I mw Goering, and secured an assurance from him that Germany would not be unconelllator ? the Crech Government frankly sought Co- operation with, rather than an- tagonism to. Germany.
I arranged a meeting between the Field Marshal ond the Czech delegato оп the Commianion, Monsieur Mastny, who was also the Czech Minlaler at Berlin and with whom I had maintained. throughout the crials the friend- Itent relations.
From the moment that Benes resigned, the position became casler, though the Germans, na usual, did little to modify their demands or to honour Goering's promise to be generous,
I left Berlin as soon as was prac- ticable after the conclusion of the work of the International Commis-
sion
I had, of course, the utmost mis- givings as to Hitler's good faith And the honesty of lils ultimnie Intentions towards the Czechs.
But a Government had assumed power at Prague, which sincerely sought co-operation with Ger- nony, and since Hitler had got the
to barbarism
Moreover, I was a sick man and had been for some months past. Within a couple of weeks I 'was operated upon in a nursing home and for four months altogether I remained completely out of every- thing.
That in itself WILI ጎ minor disaster. I am not presuming lo suggest that anything might have been altered by my presence at Berlin.
But four months were too long to be absent from Germany In the dynamic state through which she was passing, and In view of the appetites which had been whelled by the inclusion of ten million Austrian and Sudeten Germans in the Reich.
events
Furthermore,
occurred during that interval which had a considerable bearing upon sub- sequent developments. One of these was the organised persecu- tion of the Jews which took place in November.
In revenge for the murder by a young unbalanced Jew of a Ger- man diplomatist in Paris, aqunda of German hooligans reverted to the barbarism of the Mickile Ages and indulged in an orgy of violent
His resentment
over
Munich
egging him on to fight England while the latter was still militarily unprepared.
Hitler turns
to extremists
They reproached him for having accepted the Munich selllement, and thus having missed the most favourable opportunity.
An uneasy feeling lest they might have been right cont tributed to Hitler's fil-humour.
Nor was Munich in itself an agrecable experience for him. He found himself there for once in
the company of three men who were his equals, instead of being 'surrounded by sycophants obedi- ent to his slightest gesture.
The experience confirmed his dislike for settlement by negotia- tion.
Moreover, the evident popularity of Mr. Chamberlain with the German people not only detracted from his own personal prestige, but also gave him food for uneasy reflection.
He could dragoon his people and they would always follow him; but could he count on their willing devotion in all circumstances?
It Was the first unpicasant rift between him and
and his people, and was the peace efforts of Mr.
It was
Chamberlain which had started it. It is certainly a fact that, after Munich, he showed considerable ill-will towards those who hod argued with him against bushing things to extremes.
His Volce had told him that there would be no general war, or that, even if there were, there could be no moro propitious moment for it than that October, and for once he had been obilged to disregard that Volce and to listen to counsels of prudence.
After Munich, those whom he regarded as the faint-hearts in Germany, 'beginning with Goering and passing through many strata of the Party and of the Govern- ment officials, fell from grace.
Heil Jekyll and Hyde!
On the other hand, this uneasy "reflection "was"the"main"raüse” of the rise to favour of the Ribben- trops and Himmlers, and of his subsequent measures for the rein- forcement of the Porty vis-a-vis the Army, which had also been anti-war.
But it was his own faint- heartedness which probably Infu- rlated him more than anything
else: for the first time he had Infled to obey his Voice.
For me, Hitler was a sort of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde.
TO
begin with, he may not have been more than -visionary of genius or a practical dreamer, with a sublime faith in himself and in his mission to reinstate Germany in her former position among the nations.
A
"Mein Kampf" shows that he
endowed with was naturally highly developed political sense, but it is unlikely that his original ambitions were as wide as they subsequently became.
with the sinking of the Lusitania Self before
and the shooting of Nurse Cavell in the war.
Thereby they turned the whole
of the world opinion definitely against themselves.
The second interesting feature of
Iour my
months' enforced absence, was what I can only describe as the reactions of Hitler after Munich.
The Munich settlement deprived Hitler of the great satisfaction--to which he was ardently looking for- ward--of giving his army a little experience, of appearing himself in the role of a conquering hero, and of wreaking vengeance on Benes and the Czechs,
In one sense he may have been not ungrateful to Mr. Chamber- lain for having prevented a world war to which his army and people were opposed.
In another, any gratitude which he may have felt was far out- weighed by resentment at having been compelled to change his mind and at being deprived of his local
war,
The unanimity with which the French Chamber (unlike the House of Commons in this respect) ap- proved of the Munich. Agreement certainly helped to confirm him in this opinion.
In yet another sense, too, Hitler felt irritated with himself. A sec- tion of his followers were always
country
means
His initial aspiration may well have been to become Chancellor of Germany, to complete her unity by of the incorporation of Austria, his own motherland, as a first objective, and to restore to Germany her self-respect and prosperity.
The interesting point to eluci- date would be when ha ceased to be Jekyll and became Ilyde.
It was probably a matter of gradual evolution: Dictators, hav ing achieved absolutism, lose their sense of proportion.
Each success leads to over ex- panding alms, while their insati- able desire for their own per- manence drives them in the end to pui soll before their country, and to adventure us the sole means of maintaining
their hold.
So it was with Napoleon, and so It seems to me to have been with Hitler. The Chancellorship, the unity and prosperity of Germany were, in the end, not enough.
His flatterers described him as the successor of Frederick the
These extracts are taken from the book by Sir Nevile Henderson entitled "Failure of a Mission," published by Messrs. Hodder and Stoughton, Ltd.
called
Great and Bismarck, and, as time went on, he felt himself upon to emulate their military victories as well as their other con structive achievements,
[Copyright in all countries. Re- production in whole or in part strictly prohibited.]
TO-MORROW
Nazi swoop that stag- gered the world.
Hitler tears up the Munich Agreement, seizes Czecho Slovakia -and commits a major political blunder.
My mission is "ship- wrecked."
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