Foreign News: Shock

The official German news agency stayed open all night. The official Nazi paper, Volkischer Beobachter, appeared for the first time in history in red ink with headlines seven inches high. It carried the biggest news story in its career: announcement of the German-Russian non-aggression pact.

The official agency stayed open so startled Germans could find out how the rest of the world reacted to Germany’s biggest news. In Budapest, it was called a bombshell; in Moscow, a thunderbolt; in London, startling, astounding, shocking, and calculated to create “stunned surprise.” Newsgatherers in Budapest, hastily quizzing Hungarian, Rumanian, Bulgarian and Yugoslavian officials by telephone, reported that their reaction was one of consternation, heard many a frank statement that the pact might mark a major turning point in world history. All over the Balkans speculation ranged from the future of Prime Minister Chamberlain to the consequences on Poland, from guesses about the speed of developments to guesses about the extent of Germany’s diplomatic triumph.

But from London came the most significant comments. Completely taken by surprise, newspapers could print only brief bulletins, prominent among them one declaring that the Foreign Office had nothing to say, and one advising Britons to be calm. Said the Daily Mail: “It means an end of the Franco-Russian treaty for mutual assistance in the event of attack. It also cancels out the Anti-Comintern Pact entered into by Germany, Italy, Japan and Spain in their campaign against Bolshevism.” Labor’s Daily Herald wanted Parliament called back into session to face the consequences of “one of the most astounding and shocking reversals of policy in history.” Moscow’s official news agency, Tass, gave London’s editors little help. It merely reported that the problem of improving German and Soviet political relations came up after the signing of the trade treaty between the two countries, that both Germany and Russia want to relieve the strain and eliminate the danger of war.

All this was rewarding news flowing from the world’s capitals to Germany’s official agency as the morning wore into dawn. Boasted the Volkischer Beobachter: The Pact had been Germany’s secret for weeks, had been calculated to keep Western powers guessing, had been responsible for the calm behavior of Italian and German diplomats, who knew that they had a major surprise up their sleeves.

First to move, the Egyptian Cabinet met early, decided to recognize the Soviet Union.