1940-05-03 — Page 24

PAGE 4-HONGKONG TELEGRAPH

Sir Nevile Henderson

INSTALMENT 117

'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 averted at the eleventh hour,

vas

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 fille the streets..

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 easier 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, Mussolini was delayed the conclusion.

the only one of the four statesmen who could speak and understand all three languages. The final agres- ment was reached substan- the lines of the tially on Godesberg memorandum, as modified by the final Anglo- French plan.

Germany thus incorporated the Sudeten lands in the Belch with- out bloodshed and without firing &* 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 frontier which so many Germans desired.

Goering's promise

Czecho-Slovakia had lost-and a bit more— territories which it would probably have been wiser not to have included at Veraallies in the Czech State, and, which could never, except on the basis of federation, have remained perman- . ently therein.

left Munich before the Prime Minister had his final meeting alone with Hitler, and drew up and signed the Anglo-German declara- tion of September 30.

Early that morning the French and Italian Ambassadors, together with the German State Secretary and myself, flew back to Berlin, and the first meeting of the Inter- national Commission set up under the Munich Agreement was nelu- ally held the same afternoon at 6.30.

Its meetings constituted the flanl act of the scene of the second droma.

The tasks delegated to the Am- bassadors were ungrateful in prin- ciple and most distasteful in detall.

I had made up my mind before the first meeting began that the best hope for Czecho-Slovakia lay

in direct negotiation, where poad

ble, with Germany, and that plc- blacktes, which could only lead to

trouble, should be avoided at all

cost.

I did my best to ensure both those objectives. I saw Goerbor, and secured an assurance from him that Germany would not be it the Creek unconcillatory, Government frankly sought co- operation with, rather than an- tagonism to, Germany.

I arranged a meeting between the Field Marshal and the Czech delegate On the

Commission, Monskur Maslay, who was also the Czech Minlater at Berlin and with whom had maintained throughout the crisis the friend- liest relations.

From the moment that Benes resigned,

the position became. the Germans, as caster, though 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-

had, of course, the utmost mis- givings as to Hitler's good faith and the honesty of la ultimate Intentions towards the Czechs.

But a Government had assumed power at Prague, which sincerely Ger- sought co-operation with

many, and since Hitler had got the

HITLER disobeys his "VOICE"

Mr. Neville Chamberlain returning to Eng-

land from the famous Munich Conference.

Last end of the old Germany. President von Hindenburg (centre) reluctantly calls on Bitier to form a Government. ing, trusted by both Army and Nazis, is the man who brought them together. Hiler still wears top-hat and striped trousers. soon Hindenburg will be dead, Hifler will be the Fuhrer in uniform, and Goering will be at his right hand.

Goer-

But

Sudeten, which he had solemnly assured Mr. Chamberlain was hir sole object, it was still permissible at least to hope that he might. treat a friendly disposed. Czech Government with some generosity and fairness.

Nevertheless, I left for Eng- land about the middle of October thoroughly disheartened, and if I had been a free agent X would never have returned to Berlin.

The Hitlerion methods had been too much in evidence recently for ine to feel otherwise than Kusted.

dis-

Nazis go back

to barbarism

Moreover, I was a slek 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.

minor

That

in itself

節 Was

disaster. I am not presuming to suggest that anything might have been altered by my presence at Berlin.

But four months were too long to be absent froin Germany in the dynamic state through which she was passing, and in view of the appetites which had been whetted by the inclusion of ten million

Austrian and Sudeten Germans In the Reich.

Furthermore, events occurred during that Interval which had u considerable bearing upon Buly. 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, squads of German hooligans reverted to the barbarism of the Middle Ages and indulged in an orgy of violent

Ill-treatment of the Jews such us even the Middle

could ALes scarcely equal.

They did so of the instigation of Dr. Goebbels propaganda press,

with und

the connivance and actual participation of Himmler's secret police and extreme Nazis.

The exaggerated and Inhuman revenge which the Germans took wis, however, from their own point of view. an act of Incredible stupidity, comparable in its effect

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 settlement, and thus having missed the most favourable opportunity.

He

An uneasy feeling lest they might have been right con- tributed to Hiller's fli-humour.

Ner was Munich in Itself an agrecable experience for him. 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

Chamberlain of Mr.

with the German people not only detracted from his own personal prestige. but also gave him food for uncasy reflection.

He could dragoon his people and follow htm; they would always but could he count on their willing devotion in all circumstances?

It was the first unpleasant rift between him and his people, and it was the peace efforts of Mr. Chamberlain which had started it. It is certainly a fact that, after Munich, showed considerable towards those who lind argued with him against pushing things to extremes.

His Volce had told him that there would be no general war, or that, even if there were, there

moro could be no

propitious moment for it than Uut October, and for once he had been obliged to disregard that Volce and to listen to coussels 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-enuse of the rise to favour of the Ribben-. trups and Himmlers, and of his subsequent measures for the rein- forcement of the Party vis-a-vis the

anty, which had also been

It

own

had

But

his was

falnit- heartedness which probably Infu- rlated him more than anything

he else; for the first time failed to obey his Voler.

For ine, Hitler was a sort of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde.

To begin with, he may not have been more than

tlhn t 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.

"Mein Kampf" shows that he was naturally endowed with á highly developed political sense, but it is unlikely that his original Bimbitions were as wide as they subsequently became.

with the sinking of the Lusitanin Self

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 iny four 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- luin for having prevented a world was to which his army and people were opposed,

In another, any gratitude which he may have felt was for out- weighed by resentment at having been compelled to change his mind and at being deprived of his local

WIE.

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, Hiller fett Irritated with himself. A sec- tion of his followers were always

before

country

His Initial nspiration may well have been to become Chancellor of Germany, to complete her unity by means of the incorporation of Austrin, his own motherland, as a first objective, and to restore to Germany her self-respect and prosperity.

The interesting point to clucl- date would be when he censed to be Jekyll and became Ilyde.

It was probably a matter of gradual evolution. Dictators, hay- ing achieved absolutism, lose their sense of proportion.

Ex-

Each success leads to ever panding aims, while their insall- able desire for their own per- manence drives them in the end to put self before their country, and to adventure as the sole means of maintaining their hold.

So it

I was with Napoleon, and so it seems to me to bave been with Hiller. The Chancellorship, the unity and prosperity of Germany were, in the end, not enough.

His flatterers described him as the

01 Fuccessor Frederick the

These extracts are taken from the book by Sir Nevlic Henderson entitled "Failure of a Mission," mublished by Messrs. Hodder and Stoughton, Ltd.

99

Great and Bismarck, and, as time went on, he felt himself called 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 Czechoslovakia

--and commits a major political blunder.

My mission is "ship- wrecked."

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