1940-04-25 — Page 14

PAGE 4-HONGKONG TELEGRAPH ̈

Sir Nevile Henderson

INSTALMENT

After” “friendship talks” comes disillusión

You have read how

Sir Nevile — British Ambassador 111 Berlin up to the outbreak of war-renewed his effort to arrange a friendly visit to Britain by the German Foreign Minister

And how Hitler coully rebuffed the proposal. Then-

MR.

CHAMBERLAIN

made a second attempt

in the course of the year 1937 to break the ice of bad relu- tions with the Nazi Govern- ment..

Arrangementa

had

been

made by General. Goering, as Game Warden of The Reich, to hold a great hunting exhi bition at Berlin in November. When I arrived at my post in May, I found that almost every European country was to be represented at this ex- hibition, except Great Britain.

It seemed to me unfortun- ate that we should not partici pate. I consequently appealed to the Foreign Office for help contribution in securing a

from 1.M. Government, even at that late hour, for this pur-·

pose.

Thanks to their good offices a small sum was forthcoming. and a highly satisfactory col- lection was arranged.

Secret behind Halifax visit

..

GERMAN

ARMS:MY

SECRET

WARNING

Lord Halifax at the Berlin hunting exhibi- tion. In German cpes he was one of the

It is perhaps not out of place to mention here that in the final ad- -Judication-Poland received the first-principal-exhibits,?

prize for the European section, and Britain the first prize for its over- sens collection,

But the exhibition chiefly merits enention in this record owing to the fact that it furnished Lord Halifax, at that time Lord Prest- dent of the Council, with the op-- portunity for a visit to Berlin.

It is true that in accordance with diplomatic tradition, albeit also in order to avoid exciting exaggerated hopes in some quarters and appre- hension in others, the visit was described as entirely private and unofficial, and the Lord President's status as a Master of Foxhounds was accordingly carefully stressed.

But the fact remained that it was designed by Mr. Chamber- Jala to establish that personal contact between Д prominent British statesman and the Nazi leaders which Hiller was believed to seck, and which, I was hoped, might lead to a belter under- standing.

As such and taken by itself. It was entirely successful and, bad a better understanding been posal- ble or really wanted by Hitler, the visit would have largely contri- buted to it.

Goebbels behaved well

You

Lord Halifax lunched on arrival with Baron and Baroness Neurath, who were old acquaint- ances, and spent his first after- noom visiting the Exhibition of which, Indeed, he was in German eyes one of the principal exhibits,

His passage through the dense throngs of people was certainly greeted by the public with evident sympathy and pleasure.

He paid it a second visit on the next day, and in the evening he Berchtesgaden, went by tram to where he had a long conversation with Hitler.

on the. He returned to Berlin morning of the 20th and lunched with General Goering at Karin- hall. That evening I gave a big dinner party at His Majesty's Em- bassy nt which he met most of the other leading Nazl Ministers and personalities.

On the following day (Sunday), Dr. Goebbels and is wife came to

tea at the Embassy. While my sister, Lady Leitrini and Lady Alexandria Metcalfe, who were staying with me at the time, enter- tuned Frat Goebbels, I acted as interpreter between Lord Halfax and Dr. Goebbels.

The subject of their conversation was the Press of our two countries, and for a while thereafter there was less friction in this respect,

Nor can I refrain from observing that the reusonableness and logic. which Dr. Goebbels always dis-

IIls professions

cost him nothing

and were 0 va- luable part of his stock trade for delud- Ing the German people, who, in the mass, really did want to be friends with the English.

It Was the patter of the conjurer intend- ed to mislend his audience and distract their al- tention.

And, Indeed, up to March 15, however

mi

enid

one prepared might be for the worst, It was still possible to hope that Iller might be sincere; that he meant. even approximately what he, said; that he would, in fact, be satisfied once the unity of Great Germany was consummated; that all he wanted was Germans; and that once he had got the Austrian and Sude- len sheep into the German fold, he would leave other nations alone and content himself with peaceful occupations and pursuits.

Provided one is prepared for the worst, one cnn and must always hope for the best, until the worst happens.

play in private, seemed to make. Air Force:

in spite of his reputation, quite n good impression upon Lord Hall- fax,

The Lord President left that evening for London. His tine during his five days' visit to Ger- many had been fully occupied, and the general effect was up to a point undoubtedly good.

Hitler cannot but have been- und in fact, so I heard, was-im- pressed by the obvious sincerity, high principles and straightfor ward honestly of a man like Lord Halifax.

The general German public re- Karded the visit as a proof of British goodwill towards Germany and

clearly appreciative. were Nevertheless, the offelal German tendency was to sit back and welt.

As Goering sald to me after the "Does the Prime Minister visit, really mean business, and will he be able to impose his will upon those circles in England which seek to negative everything which is Nazl, or which is not run on the old lines of the League of Nations, enclretement, collective French security, and Russia as the coun-- terpolse to Germany In Europe?"

That was the orthodox view in Germany at that time of British. polley, but the fact was that, in spite of all his professions of a desire for an understanding with Britain, Hiler was himself in no hurry.

He was astule enough to renting that he had first to cross the Aus trinn and other brooks. llc was not prepared to sacrifice his Cen- to that tral European ambitions understanding.

Gapa relations with England only meant, for him, the acqules- cence of England in his schemes for the redrawing of the Central Kuropean map.

Alarming

signs

Pence was my goal, and I could not honestly work for it if I acted

街

"The German army and air force were super-toys, and Hiller was determined to find. or make an occasion for proving what a formidable super-toy maker he was."

the whole German nation which is being prepared for war.”

In the light of that paragraph written in the course of the first week of January, 1938, it seems astonishing that one should have managed to preserve at the time

shred of optimism. any

It was, however, still possible to was acting conceive that Hitler solely on the principle for war.

66

'Wild Men"

wanted action

I never had a shadow of doubt that his aims were the incorpora- tion of Austrin, the Sudetenlands, Memel and Datizig. His claims in these respects were based on the principle of self-determination, and n negotinted settlement in regard to them should not therefore have been impossible.

Even Hitler's emotion over dend Germans in connection with the Hindenburg and Deutschland dis- asters encouraged the illusion that In he might recoil from a war which such misfortunes would be magnlated hundred thousand fold.

Time, which alone could do so, has proved the falsity of these hopes. Hitler and his wild men were not to be satisfied by a mere display of force to achieve their ends.

If one makes a toy, the wish to play with it becomes irresistible. And the German army and elr force were super-toys, and Hitler was determined to find or, if he could not find, to make an occasion for proving, regardless of the cost to Germany and to-the-world..what. A formidable super-toy maker tie

Was.

over

As for Hitler's emotion dead Germans, It was undoubtedly sincere at the moment that he ex- cor- pressed it, and, in fact, responded with a certain senti- mental strenk in his character.

But it was a typical streak of bis two-sided nature, which he could assume or discard at will.

It was the same with his indig nation over oppressed Germans in other countries (not over those- be it noted in the concentration camps in his own country).

Sú long as

good relations with Poland were necessary policy, he evinced no sympathy for the German minority in that coun-. try.

on the assumption that, whatever German

occurred or whatever one did, the end would always and inevitably be the worst.

My job was not to prophesy the worst, but to đọ my utmost to pre- vent it happening.

[1 the annual report on Ger- many, which I wrote for the year 1937, one passage ran as follows:

"The rearmament of Germany, If it has been less longer news,

the has been pushed on with same energy as in previous years

"In the army, consolidation has been

of the day, but the

order there is clear evidence that a con- siderable increase is being pre- pared in the number of divisions and of additional tank units out-

those divisions.

Can

be

The air force continues to ex- pund at an alarming rate, and one

at

present see no indication of well soon De a halt. We may faced with a strength of between 4,000 und 5,000 first-line aircraft.

"The power of the German Air Force has been still further In- creused by the Intensive develop- ment of air defence, which has reached a degree of effeiency pro- bably unknown in any other coun-

try,

Even the navy though well within the 35 per cent, proportion in training a personnel consider. ubly above the requirements of that standard.

"Finally, the mobilisation of the Industry civilinn population and for war, by means of education, propaganda, tralalug and admini- strative measures, has made fur ther strides.

"Military efflclency is the god to whom everyone must offer sacrifice. I is not an army but

lo

lives

s

will be sacrificed

In order to ensure Italy's good- will, he proved that he was quite ready to sacrifice the Germans in the South Tyrol, though possibly with the Iden of sending them back again there later.

Since the war began he has authorised the infliction of untold hardships on the Baltic Germans, simply in order to oil the wheels of his present Russian polley.

On the other hand, when senti- mentality served his immediate purpose, as in the case of the pro- Nazis in Austria, the Sudeten in the German Czecho-Slovakia or minority in Poland, he was able equally easily to work himself up into a frenzy on their behalf.

.

As with the oppressed, so it was with dead Germans.

fle had publicly announced that he reckoned on heavy German losses if there was war with Po- Yet that did not deter him land. from conceiving and carrying out

Almilarly, thero can, I think, his Polish campaign.

be little doubt that he will sacri- Bee without a tremor countless thousands of lives on the Western Front if he believes that by so doing he will succeed in glorify- ing himself and, in maintaining his etyn position and that of his parly in Germany.

7

I have alluded to my mission.to Berlin as a Drama. The year 1037 constituted Its orchestral over-

་

ture, of which the Wagnerian leit-. motifs were the disciplined tramp of armed men, ever louder and more multitudinous, and the cease- less clank of heavy machinery forging guns and yet bigger guns, Lanks and ever heavier tanks, bombers and still more powerful and destructive bombers,

It was a sombre Introduction to the four-act tragedy which was to follow,

Reproduction

[Copyright.

in whole or in part strictly prohibited.]

TO-MORROW

Sir

One of the most sensa.

in tional episodes Nevile's narrative.

He tells the story behind Field-Marshal Blomberg's surprising marriage, and of Hitler's "brainstorm" that followed it.

That marriage had big repercussions in European history. Sir Nevile will tell you why.

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