PAGE 4-HONGKONG TELEGRAPH
Sir Nevile Henderson INSTALMENT
HITLER POSTPONES the WAR
With the Soviet pact in his "pocket Hitler became jubilant and truculent. He was prepared to show the world what his army and air force would do if he did not get his way in the Polish dispute.
To-day Sir Nevile Henderson, Britain's Ambassador in Berlin until the outbreak of war, tells hoiv dramatic moves to save the peace were made by Britain, and how Hitler, with preparations for an invasion of Poland apparently complete, hesitated
on August 22 when Herr von Ribben- trop was preparing to fly to Moscow, I received instruc - tions to convey without delay a personal letter from the. Prime Minister to Herr Hitler.
AT the moment AT
An interview was arranged for me with Hitler for the fol- lowing day at Berchtesgaden, and I left Berlin at 9.30 am. on August 23.
about mid-
I reached Salzburg day. and I hid my first audience will Hitler at Berchtesgaden at 1 p.rt.
The three main points of the Prime Minister's letier were:-
(1) Insistence on the determina- tion of His Majesty's Government to fulfil their obligations to lo- land.
(2) Their readiness, if a peace atmosphere could be created, to "discuss-all-the-problema at issue between our two countries, and
(3) Their anxiety, during a period of truce, to see immediate direct discussion initiated be- tween Germany and Poland in to the reciprocal treatment regard of minorities.
thant
Hitler's reply, which was no less uncompromising than I had anti-
to the effect elpated, was Great Britain's determination to could not modify support Poland his polley.
Fuehrer gives me his reply
He was prepared to accept even a long war rather than sacrifice Interests and German national
of
honour, and if Great Britain per-
In her own measures sisted mobilisation he would at once order the mobilisation of the whole of the German forces.
At my first interview will him on that day, Hiller was in a mood of extreme excitability. Is language as regards the Poles and the British responsibility for Polish attitude was violent, re- criminatory and exaggerated.
He referred, for instance, to 100,- 000 German refugees from Poland, a figure which was at least five times greater than the reality.
At my second interview, when he handed me his reply, he had re- covered his calm but was not less obdurate. Everything was Eng- land's fault,
She had encouraged the Czechs last year and she was now glving a blank cheque to Poland, Ne longer, he told me, did he trust Mr. Chamberlain,
He preferred war, he said, when ho was fifty to when he was fifty- Ave or sixty.
He had himaclt always sought and bellovo In the possibility of friendship with England.
He now realised, he said, that those who had argued the contrary had been right and nothing short of
Complete change in British policy
Germany could ever con- vince him of any sincere British desire for good relations.
My last remark to him was that I could only dođuos from his fan- guage that my mission to Ger- inany had fallett and that I biller- ly regretted 11.
I flow back from Berchtesgaden to Berlin the same evening.
I had, in fact, title hope that Minister's letter either the Prime
or my own' "language to Hitler, how- ever direct and
straightforward,
would give him pause.
felt.. situation
The Russian pact had. I created In his opinion a
Sir Nevile Henderson
certainly not averse to putting them to the. test so far as Poland - was concerned.
Asked to fly
which was favourable to his de- to London
signs
and I believed his mind to be definitely made up.
Though he spoke in a Neronic vein of his artistic tastes and of his longing to satisfy them, 1. derived the impression that the corporal of the last war was even more anxi- aus to prove what he could do as a the conquering Generalissimo in sext.
What the world or Germany might suffer was of no consequence so long as his lust to show what he, a leader of Germany, could do was satisfied.
More than once he repented to he had been Chancellor me that,
in 1914, she
would of Germany never have lost that war in 1918.
Nevertheless the visit to Berch- tosgaden may after all have post- poned the disaster for u.week..
Ribbentrop flew back to Ger- many with the signed. Russo-Ger- man Agreement and Iitler return- ed to Berlin on the night of August 24.
I have mentioned I have, as cartier, some reason to believe... though I cannot confirm it-tlut the order for the German Army to advance into Poland was ac- tually issued for the night of August 25.
It is dimeu!! otherwise to find Justification for the various orders and arrangements which came into force on August 26 and 27.
In the afternoon of August 25 itself, nil telephone communication between Berlin and London and Paris was unexpectedly cut off for several hours.
Why he hesitated
The celebrations at Tannenberg were cancelled on the 20th, and the at Nuremberg on Party Rally August 27; all naval, military and alr attaches at Berlin were refused permission to leave the city with out prior authority being obtained from the Ministry of War.
All German airports were closed from August 26, and the whole of Germany became a prohibited zone for all aircraft except the regular civil tines. All Internal Germanı air services were also suspended.
Moreover, as from the 27th a system for the rationing of food- other commodities stuffs and throughout Germany came force.
lato
That this latter and-for the public depressing Incasure should have been adopted prior to the outbreak of war can scarcely be explained, except on the assumption that war should actually have broken out August-26.
on
The tact
may well be, as I imagino it was, that Hitler had had In consequence of the Prime Minis- ter's letter one last ́hesitation and countermanded the orders to his army, whereas the other arrange». nents were allowed to proceed un- checked.
But. It was not the horrors of war or the thought of dead Ger- indns which deterred him.
Ho had unlimited 'confidence in tho magnificent army and air force 'which he had recreated; and he was
In two months, he told me, the war in the East would be ended' and he would then, he sold, hurl one hundred and sixty divisions against the Western Front, if Eng- land was so unwise as to oppose his plans.
His hesitation was due rather to one final effort to detach Britain from Poland.
Be that as it may, at about 12.45 on August 25, I' received a message to the effect that Hitler wished to receive me at the Chancellery at 1.30 p.m. At that meeting he nade to me the verbal communi- been already cation which has published in the White Paper on the outbreak of war.
Briefly
put, Hitler's proposaly "therein dealt with two groups-of- questions: (a) the immediate neces- sity of a settlement of the dispute between Germany and Poland, and (b) an eventual offer of friendship or alliance between Germany and Great Britain,
al My interview with itler, which Herr von Ribbentrop and also presunt, Dr. Schmidt were
Over 201 lusted on this occasion hour.
The Chancellor spoke with calm He de- and apparent sincerity. scribed his proposals
last effort,
conscience sake, to for secure good relations with Great Britain, and he suggested that I should fly to London myself with them.
A
I told his Excellency that, while I was fully prepared to consider his course, I felt it my duty to tell him quite clearly that my country could not possibly go back on its word to Poland.
However anxious we were for n better understanding with Ger- many, we could never reach one except on the basis of a negotiated settlement with Poland.
the Whatever may have been underlying motive of this Anal gesture on the part of the Chan- cellor, it was one which could not be ignored, and with Lord Halifax's consent. I flew to London early the
15
limitation of armaments. His Majesty's Government pointed out that, whereas a just settlement of the Polish question might open the do way to world peace, fallure to so would finally ruin the hopes of a better understanding between countries and might well plunge the whole world into war.
our
I did most
of the talking
It
Could any reply have been more precise or straightforward? made it easy for Hitler to avoid the calamity of war. if he hed really wished to do so.
At 10.30 p.m. on August 28, I was received by Herr Hitler at the Reichschancery and handed to him this British reply, together with a German translation.
Hiller was once again friendly and reasonable, and appeared to be not dissatisfied with the answer which I had brought to him. He observed,however, that he must. study it carefully and would give
reply the next day. written Our conversation lasted for well over an hour, and It was nearly midnight before I got back to the Embassy,
me a
It was, I think, the only one of my Interviews with Witler at which it was I who did most of the talking.
Possibly for this reason there is no account of i In the German White
Paper which was published after the outbreak of the war.
I
used every argument which I could think of to include him to see reason and to come down on the side of peace.
I might mention
incidentally
that both on that evening and the next, when visited Iller again and was handed his reply, nothing was left undone to enhance, or to Impress me with, the solemnity of the occasion,
From the Embassy to the Reichs- chancery is a mere three or four hundred yards, but as Berlin was undergoing a week of trial black- outs, the Wilhelmstrasse was in complete darkness.
People were
following morning (August 20), of not hostile
a German plane which was cour- (cously put at my disposni.
Two days were spent by His Majesty's Government in giving the fullest and most careful con- sideration to Hitler's message, and on the afternoon of August 28 I flew back to Berlin
their reply.
with
His Majesty's Government pro- posed the initiation of direct dis- cussions between the Polish and German Governments, and the adoption of immediate steps to re- lleve the tension in the matter of the treatment of minorities.
which
to
Furthermore, they undertook to use all their influence with a view to contributing towards a solution which might be satisfactory both parties, and
would, they hoped, prepare the way for the negotiation of that wider ond more complete understanding be- tween Great Britain and Germany which both countries desired.
Finally, after a reference to
These extracts are taken from the book by Sir Nevile Henderson on- titled "Failure of a Muuston," pribi lithed by Mesura. Hodder
Stoughton, Ltd.
&
A considerable but quite expres- slonless crowd had collected in the square, opposite the entrance to the courtyard, into which my car had to drive. Though the people were silent, they gave me no sensa- tion of hostility.
of
ro- the
Up to the biller end that mained
the attitude Berliners,
A guard of honour was drawn up in the courtyard to the right of the main door and I was re- ceived with a roll of drums.
Dr. Meissner and Bruckner, Hitler's faithful A.D.C. and body- guard, were awaiting me on the doorstep. The former remarked to me that he was gled to that I was wearing a buttonhole.
I had always worn a dark red carnation in Berlin except during the three critical days of the week which preceded Munich.
"Never again
Germany"
When I was seeing Horace Wil- son off at the Tempelhof on his
return to London during that week, I had been asked by some German newspaper correspondents why I had forgotten my buttonhole.'
I told them that I had not for- gotten, but that I considered it to be inappropriate at a moment of The story had auch grave crisis. got around
regarded and I
Meissner's remark as signilleant.
Was Hitler then preoccupied as to what the answer of His Majesty's Government would be?
But it was probably merely
Meissner's own wishful thinking
or
preoccupation.
I wore my carnation again the next day, but, that time, as I was leaving after my interview, I told Melasmer that I feared that I would never wear one again in Germany.
[Copyright in all countries. Reproduction in whole or in part strictly prohibited.]
TO-MORROW:
My midnight scene with Ribbentrop Two amazing interviews-Pistol at Po. land's head-My warning to Halifax.
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