1940-04-30 — Page 4

3

PAGE 4-HONGKONG TELEGRAPH

Chamberlain meets Hitler and Goering threatens that if there is war-

LONDON WILL BE

IN RUINS

Negotiations in

Sudeten crisis

origins of which

-

the

the

were

described yesterday-

dragged on

at Prague

throughout the summer of 1938.

When, in July, deadlock was reached, the British Government sent Lord

Runciman to act dependent mediator

as in-

But before that mission could reach a settlement the next Nazi Party Rally was being held at Nurem. berg, and Hitler was mak- ing a speech that "set a torch to the Sudeten lands."

Sir Nevile Henderson, British Ambassador in Berlin unt the outbreak

of war, reveals to-day

more secrets of those dramatic days.

I

AM, personally, not likely to forget in a hurry my second visit to Nuremberg in 1938, cooped up for five days in the diplomatic train, without privacy and practically with- out means of communication.

I was already feeling very un- well at the time of a malady which was to put me hors de combat for four months In the winter; sleep at night in a wagon-lit compart- ment was hardly possible, and rest during the day there was none.

__1_had__left_Berlin on the night of Tuesday, September 6, meaning to stop a mere thirty-six hours. In the event I stopped five full days.

Wrote notes on "thriller" pages

A railway train scarcely lends itself to writing, and I had fool- ishly omitted to provide myself with any materials.

When eventually I had to send

iciter to London by special. acroplane, I was obliged to use

for the purpose the blank pages torn from some detective stories.

My vocal activities were, on the other hand, immense. I had two long cont

conversations with. Goering, three with Goebbels, one

two with Ribbentrop, two or three with Neurath.

or

conveyed, besides, an endless succession of warnings to a host of

· ́other Nazi personalities of scarcely lesser note, the cumulative effect of which, since talking there was almost the equivalent of broad- casting, I hoped would be useful.

To all except Hitler, with whom I merely exchanged banalities in the midst of my colleagues, remarics were the same.

my

"If Germany makes an aggres- sive attack on Czecho-Slovakia, France is in honour bound to come to the alt of the Czochs, and if France is engaged in war, Great Britain will inevitably be drawn in airo,"

I felt that the most immediate matter of importance was so to Impress this on the German minds that Hier, in the big political speech which he was to maka at the end of the Congress, would think twice and would not adopt therein an attitude from which afterwards he could not recede.

It was indeed clear from the be. ginning that Hitler himself was de- termined to refuse

any political contact with the foreigner,

At the diplomatic reception my French colleague, Francols Pancet, as senior member of the diplomatie body, had tentatively sought hils

Sin

Nevile

Henderson

views by referring to the fall of the political barometer.

Hitler had curtly replied that weather

were Forecasts

always wrong and turned the subject,

He was in the midst of his whole Nazi army and after May 21 he was not for a moment going to allow it subject to be thought that he was to any further external dictation.

It was my absolute conviction then, and with the enlightenment of time it was even more so, that he would have declined on the ground of all his other numerous engagements to receive me if I had asked for a special audience.

Also, if

The Premier

at

arriving

Munich.

With him is

Ribbentrop.

And he had need to be, inasmuch as by the time he got to bed at 11 p.m. that night he had been travel- ling by car and rail and aeroplane for at least ten hours with much talk with Ribbentrop and others in between, and with a long interview with Hitler and a telegraphic report to his own Cabinel to finish up with.

On arrival at

Berchtesgaden

shortly after 4 pan., we drove frst of all to the hotel, where accom- modation had been hurriedly pre- pared for us.

I had given him through Hitler

Ribbentrop any official warning-- which must have become public property-the effect would have been to drive him right off the deep eud, and would have made au im- mediate aggression

Czecho Slovakia unavoidable.

on

The idea of a public warning to be given by me to Hitler at Nuremberg, which was seriously considered by His Majesty's Gov- ernment was accordingly drop- ped FTLY Insistence to the above

effect

Bui the most that can be said about Hitler's speech ut Nuremberg was that it did not actually slam the door Anally on a peaceful solu- tion.

it

It was truculent and aggressive: claimed self-determination for the Sudetens and promised them Germany's full support, but it sel no time-limit and demanded plebiscite,

HO

Nevertheless it set the torch to the inflammable material in the Sudeten lands, and was the signal for an outburst of demonstrations,

rinting and serious disturbances.

The Czechs replied with martial kw, and Henicin retorted by

abandoning the Carlsbad points as

no longer suficient.

In these circumstances, the Prime Minister set into operation his plan for personal contact with Hitler, and shortly after my return to Ber- received instructions 10 arrange it accordingly.

I

I did so through Ribbentrop, and Hitler at once agreed.

Chamberlain

`says 'I'm tough’

I was given to understand that his first reaction was to save the elder mun the fatigue of the journey by going himself to London, or t least half way there. His second was

Chamberlain husband,

to invite Mrs.

to accompany her

There was, however, no time to consider counter proposals, and the Prime Minister left London al eight-thirty on the morning of the Afteenth and reached the Munich nerodrome four hours later.

I had myself left Berlin by train the evening before and had arrived at breakfast-time in Munich, where There were certain hurried details as regards ciphering and typing to be arranged with Mr. Carvell, the Consul-General there.

The British plane did the journey quicker than was antlelpated, and I was at the aerodrome barely five or ten minutes before it landed.

Nellher Mr. Chamberlein nor Sir Horace Wilson, who accompanied kim, had ever flown before, and I was a little nervous how they might have stood the Journey. I need hot have been.

Mr. Chamberlain stepped out of the machine looking remarkably fresh and quite Imperturbable. In reply to some comment of mine, he auld, "I'm tough and wiry."

suggests private talk

A bare half hour's

grace was there accorded us before we left again in a Beet of motor-cars for the drive of some twenty minutes up the mountain to the Berghof.

by There Hitler, surrounded General Keitel and a few other members of his Immediate entour-

TO-MORROW

Hitler goes back on his word— Chamberlain's imlignation "Wer seemed inevitable."

age, reerived the Prine Minister on the top of the small flight of steps which lead to the entrance of

mountain his unpretentious fastness.

The first item on the programine was tea, which was served in a

before semi-circle

the fireplace situated opposite the great window of the reception room *looking across the mountains to Salzburg. After twenty minutes of desul- tory conversation, the Chancellor suggested to the Prime

causing him much extra trouble and worry, as well as rendering the procedure of conversations a deox subsequently impossible.

New meeting arranged

I have always regretted this, us Hibbentrop's interventions

never

reverse.

helpful

were often the

At the

later

Sir interviews Horace Wilson was always pre- sent, and myself sometimes, while Kirkpatrick (of the British Em- bassy) acted as British interpreter and took records of the meetings.

only .

In the course of this first con- versation, which lasted for three hours, Hitler made it clear that the he could Lerms on which ngree to a peaceful solution by agreement was on the basis of the the principic of acerptance of self-determination,

Prime The

Minister Bnally accepted that principle for him- self, and undertool to consult his Cabinet and to endeavour to secure

its

consent to it, and-likewise that of the French and Czech Govern- ments.

Hier. for his part, declared his readiness to discuss thereafter ways and means, and undertook to meet Mr. Chamberlain again at u1 date to be agreed upon between them.

The Prime Minister accordingly left by air for Tandon #gain on the following morning.

Lord Runciman was recalled from Prague for consultation, and the French Premier and Monsieur Bonnet-were invited-to-London-on- September 18.

Goering talks of

our défences

Ance

Mr. Neville Chamberlain loyally executed his side of the bargain and even more, since His Majesty's Government and the French Goy- erament agreed to persunde the Czeclio-Slovak Government, in the cause of peace and the mainten ance of the vital Interests of i Czecho-Slovakki

herself, not only to grant self-determination, but to io the withoui plebiscite redt Reich all the Sudeten areas in

Wis which the population Minister

fifty per cent. German.

In the meantirne, however, the

meant in

Czecho- internal situation Slovakia after Berchtesgaden had gone from bad to worse.

that they might begin their talk and they disappeared, together with the reliable Interpreter, Dr. Schimidt, Into Hitler's study.

The rest of us remained to sit and talk together in the reception room for the next three hours.

Hitler's personal staff did their best to feed and entertain us, but it was a wet and misly September evening and even the distraction-

of looking out of the window at the view was denied us.

On the other band there was a constant influx of German Press telegrams about lucidents in the Sudeten lands.

One, 'I remember.

reported

that forty. Germans had been - killed in à clash somewhere with

Czech gendarmes.

case,

A British observer, of whom there were already a number in Czecho-Slovakia, and who was immediately sent to verify the roots of the

subsequently ascertained that there had, in fact

one death. It was a typical example of the method

of exaggeration and actual falsification of news which was followed by the German Press ot that time and has been ever since.

bron

It had bee. my iden that it would be best for the Prime Minister and Hiller to have their meeting alone and not in the com- pany of Ribbentrop, na would have been Inevitable it Mr. Chamber- lain had been accompanied by Sir Horace Wilson or myself.

It was no arranged, but in the nvent this was unfortunate, as, thanks to Ribbentrop and con- trary to portual' usage, the inter- preter's record of the converss- tion was never communicated to the Prime Minister. thereby

•

Dver

Thousands of Sudeten refugees had begun to pour over the fron- tiers, many undoubtedly at Nazi Instigation, but some also out of real fear of being caught, In the event of war, between two fires.

Ultimately, there were about 250,000 of these unfortunate people In Germany. The able The bodied were enrolled as "free Corps and started to ruid back from Czecho-Slovakin. The casualty lists began to mount up.

The Hodza Government resigned and was succeeded by a Govern- ment of national concentration at Prague led by General Syrovy.

A Press campaign of unprece dented violence was set loose in Germany and the Poles and Flug- garians joined in the hunt.

In

vlew of the agreement be tween the Prime

ime Minister

and Illtier at Berchtesgaden to

to meet German Press campaign &gain, the was particularly indefensible.

But self-determination, now that the

principle

had been conceded, was no longer enough for Hiller, though Goering at this time gave me his word that Germany would take no action before 24 second meeting had taken place.

Nevertheless, 113 the Field Marshal pointed out, there was no time to waste, and Germany was not bluffing.

I remember his saying to me on this occasion:→→→

"I England means to make war on Germany, no one knows what the ultimate end will be, But one thing is quite certain. Before the war is over thero will

be very few Czeclis left alive and

le of London left standing." He then proceeded to give me fairly accurate details of the num- bers of modern anti-aircraft guns which we possessed at the time, as well as of the unpreparedness of England's air defences generally.

He also mentioned, #15 was doubtless true at the time, that the Germinn air force was numerically superior

those of Britain, Belgium

and Czecho-

France,

Slovakia combined.

Re

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