THE FORMER BIR SAMUEL HOARE. BRITISH AMBAS- SADOR IN MADRID FROM 1940 TO 1944
THE CHINA MAIL, WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 21, 1957.
The Estoril Story
CHAPTER TWO
"It was
of
My
my task to get him out danger" says LORD TEMPLEWOOD
first comment on these German allegations is
Ministers invariably reported, only what Hitler wished to hear. My second comment is that while the Duke was in Spain he gave no elgn of defeatism. Indeed, he and the Duchess gave great encourage- mont to the many hundreds of guests who came to pay their respects to them at the British Embassy.
imamukaukanana
becn
Imow but I was very displeased to find this trick had played on me."
The people concerned in the Duke [SECOND WITNESS
of
to
Windsor sensation step
step forth
The Duke's
tell the truth as they saw it bodyguard...
KARL VON STOHRER lived to be 70, but he could never have had a busier fortnight than in July 1940.
when he was 67 and Hitler's Ambassador in Madrid.
His task, futile from the start, was to persuade the Duke of Windsor to defect to the side of Germany and become king of an occupied Britain.
The Duke and Duchess were, at this time, staying at the Estoril villa of a Portuguese banker, Dr.Silva. And in Madrid Stohrer plotted with Ramon Suner. brother-in-law of Fronco und Minister of the Interior....
The
plot was to send
1 emissary, Miguel Primo dv Rivern, to the Duke with A hunting Invitation,
The Duke, knowing the man, would accept and cross back into Spain where Suner would warn the Duke that Churchill was planning to do away with him.
and
SIR WALFORD SELBY
AMDABSADOR BRITISH
Suner would then offer the Duke syurt and money persuade him not to take ship to the Bahamas, where he was to be GovernCE.
"In
whole plan" Stohrer cabled his boss, Ribbet- trop "we remain completely In the background,"
this
Now In case there is anyone the left who imagines that Germany were highly calelent force in this espionage business just les lake look al another event in this unlikely story.
IN PORTUGAL 1937-40
udviser to the Duke, arrived in Listen on July 28.
the
And here is Stohrer's report en this to Ribbentrop:-
"Today there arrived at Duke's,
wmnounced, the English Minister who calls lim- self Sir Walter Turner Moneli- stope, a lawyer frem Kent. The confidential agent Portuguese
Sams, by do I 100, that $2 It is Sir Walter Monkton, then ever name is involved.
that of possible Diretor-General deputy Information. and old time member of the personal police
of reigning King by the name
·of Camerone,"
I ask you!
On
July 30 poor Stohrer Is weakening a bit and hla report says that the Impression of all the plotting on the Duke "does not seem to have been decisive."
a concerns
I suspect the Duke played the confidential emissary like trout, because the Duke said he would give his answer after 48 hours that is, July 30,
And on July 31 he gave his
Answer all, right. He left on Lisbon for the Bahamas board the liner Excalibur,
FIRST WITNESS
Ambassador in Lisbon.
course, Lisbon was fertile groud for rpy and
1
1926-1957
L
ETS get closer yes to the Duke of these days. Harry
Holder, Was bla bodyguard
and Holder is now In the Malayan Police, stationed in n bo; lerror spot in Johore,
The reporter put These questions to him:-
DID YOU at any time get
on counter-spy in
impression that the the fevered Duke might use his consider- world of 1940. The villas of
able influence in Britain against the Estoril strip sow much Churchill's conduct of the villainous plotting.
the wor?-Never,
Idea is fantastic.
are
But ag) far as the Duke and Duchess
concerned-bear WAS the Duke ever under now, for example, Sir Walford the influence of Spanish Selby, who was then British und Portuguese diplomats who
Ambassador in Lisbon:-
"I would refuse to believe on the basis of my long experience of the Duke of Windsor that
ected as Intermediaries for the Germans?-The Duke iza strong-willed man, with a mind of his own. I contol see anyone influencing him on any mater, he would ever have allowed let alone a vital one like this. himslef to have become involved
DID the
Duke ever can-
in any act of treachery againer his brother, the King, and his 5 demn Churchill's conduct country, as the German plotters apparently hopes to bring off."
the war?--I know of no greater admirer of Sir Winston than the Duke and he never let an occasion pass when he did
I asked Sir Walford whether he had suspected Santo Silva, not le all and sundry know. the Duke's host, of spying.
the
this.
He said: "Silva I did suspect. WAS the Duke, his cyalty He certainly was in touch with 4 suspect,
Germans. I made the arrangements for the Duke's stay through an hotel; and I was surprised that Silva's villa was chosen),
"What passed between Silva and the hotel manager I do not
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hemmed in day and night by Eritish agents? His loyalty was never suspect. DUCHESS....
ระ
AND... THE
was she more responsive to These intrigues than the Duke? I don't know of any intrigues. The Duchess was always a model wife whose first care was for the Duke.
THIRD WITNESS
The woman side by his
CLOSEST yet to the Duke,
through the memoirs of the Duchess, we find the answers to many a riddle posed by the German spy-thriller,
For in "The Heart Has Its Reasons the Duchess tells, how the Duke heard from Monckion for the Drst time of the German riot to kidnap him.
"But how could we possibly be of any use to them? David asked incredulously."
How
In the Duchess's account her arrival with thẻ. Duke. In Madrid that June she describes How Sir Samuel Hoare, Lord Templewood, told therm that Churchill wanted David to return to Great Britain im- mediately by way of Portugal." The Duchess was all for toll- Ing in with this plan, but the Duke was not so keen. "He hart made up his mind, without taking me fully into his confd- EXICO, that certain conditions would have to be clearly spelled out in advance of his return.
One was the sort of job he whs to have.
the
Cobles went between the Duke and Church!!! and. stay in Madrid was lengthened. Firully Winilser agreed, at Hoare's suggestion, 10 go to Lisbon and wait there for the result of negotiations between Churchill and the Palace.
'SIMPLE'
NOW note this; as soon as the Duke and Duchess arrived In Lisbon, Ambassador Selby. was anxious for them to leave at once.'
The Duchess ends: "One day we received a call from a dis- inguished Spaniard. Our visitor Bald he had come on a con- idential mission on behalf of the Spanish Government, to offer us a house in Spain.
"David thanked him, saying I have accepted a post under the British. Colonial Ofer. I intend to serve my' country.*·
It'in David's, confecture that the Germans were batiladi the Spanish Government's order
David has always con- sidered this 'plat one of the more amusing examples of the habitual Genınan miscalculation
of the British character."
So, both out, of courtesy and
By the end of June 1040 Hitler and his satellites were convinced that we were final- ly beaten.
Then, with that kind of Con-
tinental logic that is always! wrong in practice, they de- cided that the Duke of Wind- Bor was invaluable Q.9 a peacemaker,
out
They accordingly let him
of France and into Spain where they hoped to keep him] until negotiations were com- pleted.
'Get him out'
Franco was known to be hostile to us, and it was obvious to us that whether they treated) the Duke well, or badly-as they treated King Carol of Rumania-his presence in semi-enemy country was most dangerous.
He
at once did everything that I could to get him out of Spain.j I had him met on the Spanish frontier and escorted to Mad- I pulled every rid, where possible wire to get him to Portugal. In Madrid, he stayed in the Ritz as we hadj only just arrived and had no house or household ready to receive him.
Duchess and the
fully understood our domestic dim- culties, and during their few! days' stay In Madrid they Tuddily fell in with my various
suggestions.
they went to Pertugal
them.
"SUGGESTION WHICH
TREATED WITH THE CONTEMPT IT DESERVED"
When THE DUKE OF WINDSOR, seen during a recent vilt to London,
they
More than once the Duke told me of his great muxiety do, do wor work and his wish to have the question settled im-| mediately in London.
left golden opinions behind On July 23, 1940 a telegram from Stohrer Hitler's Ambassador in Madrid to Ribbentrop reported two conversations that an emissary of the Spanish Interior Ministry said he had with the Duke of Windsor in Estoril: "The Duke expressed him- self freely. In Portugal he felt almost like a prisoner. He was surrounded by agents, etc, Politically he was more and more distant from the King and the present English Government,
it
I may add that I sympathised;
with his wish and pressed upon London.
All, this white von Stohrer, the
Gemm Ambassador, Franco's Government
And
ware
frantically trying to inducoj him to separate himself from the British Government by declaring for peace.
What the Germans and Spam- lords saw each other in private I do not pretend to know.
Franco himself was o
com-
pletely ignorant of the British mentality that i can well be lieve that he thought It possible for the Duke. Once again to become King of England and for the British people to admit complete defent.
Rejected
thel
in
the end a Gestapo chief, Walter Schellenborg, was sent to Portugal in a bid to terrorise, the Duke and Duchess into accepting Hitler's offer. It was an offer of the throne of England. .as Hitler's puppet king The Idea was to get the Duke and Duchess to flee-yer the Portuguese frontier into Spain while on a "hunting trip. Reporting on the failure of this venture, the Gorman envoy in Lisbon reports that the "result ex- presses entirely the Duke's mentality."
The Duke of Windsor issued the following statement through his London solicitors: "I have little to add to the statement made by the British Government re- lating to the communications which passed between: the Corman Foreign Minister and the Carman Am- bassadors in Spain and Portugal: in July 1940 con- cerning myself.
"These
communications comprise in part complete fabrications and in part gross distortions of the truth. "The record of our journey from France through Spain to Lisbon in June 1940 has already been fully described by the Duchess in her memoirs,
"While I was in Lisbon certain people whom discovered to be pro-Nazi sympathisers, did make definite efforts to persuade me to return to Spain and not take up my -appointment as Governor of the Bahamas.
The significant fact is that the Duke himself rejected the Hitler-Franco advances and
accepted patriotically Governorship of the Bahamas, All the cloak-and-dagger busi- ness of Berlin and Madrid, all the secret visits of anony- mous confidants, all the run- ningly -arranged rendezvous therefore came to nothing. The Dukto showed his common sense in face of the tempta- tions that were offered hlm.
thinkAt And I was relieved to
that, by getting him out of very dangerous surroundings, I had helped him out of the temptations way,
"It
was even suggested to me that there would be a personal risk to the Duchess and myself if we were to proceed to the Bahamas. At no time did 1 ever entertain any thought of complying with such sugges- tion, which treated with the contempt it deserved. the earliest practicable opportunity the Duchess and I proceeded to the Bahamas, where i took up my appointment as Governor in which I served for five years."
BRITAIN'S SHRINKING OIL HOLD), :23.
TAND
1946
66%
BRITAIN
3096
1956
51%
U.S.A.
X
27%
BRITAIN
MIDDLE EAST SUPPLIES 90 per cent of FREE EUROPES CRUDE OIL
THIS chart traces the owner- ship' puttora of - Mid-East oll since 1944.
In 1945 Britain, was supreme. In the Mid-East off "play" controlling two-thirds urok's total - output;
сель
after the scuttls from Abadan And Britain's expged to 30 par in October 1981. transformed' the ploture,
of the
In the artium" Pernia's amargad
„The Americans had only * Interart toe-hold. Their share was less
regard for the truth, lết - un ¤, thần half that of Britain.
Bo, In the short space) of six International "con- ydars, the Americana - doubled setup, tó contest their share of the" Mid-Eaet ell. off the Americans.... LA
Katimates forafask@ysar - Způ with a 40 per cent
Britain'o shero of total Mid-Kart production at 27 per cent.
Nearly 10 par vent of Eurepa's
Thus, in 1962, the Amarloana'
leave to the Duchem those last 2 "But, thế' International auditen & share of total 'Mid-East [prodiso""forude: Lolignooda, ParayaURALICA. word on the. Datorik; sivey, -of Britain's - Interenta-;^in^ Perald"Atan bounded to. 49. par. dent. from the MIC»Xas%
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