Blue Book: Legman

Ambassadors are legmen in gold braid. One of the best reporters of them all is Great Britain’s Ambassador to Germany Sir Nevile Henderson. The reason the 75,000-copy first printing of the British Blue Book, including the reports he sent his Government from Berlin from May 28 to Sept. 1, sold like hot cakes in London last week was therefore not hard to find. He had turned in a world scoop, a still-warm drop of the very blood of history, a terrifying picture of how war is born, some penetrating glimpses of Field Marshal Hermann Goring, Foreign Minister Joachim von Ribbentrop and State Secretary Baron Ernst von Weizsdcker, a modest reflection of Sir Nevile’s own shrewdness, courage and humor, and above all a never-to-be-forgotten firsthand sketch of Hitler the conqueror, screamer, wizard, fox, weird.

Brightest reportorial highlights: > Sir Nevile on Goring, two months after the occupation of Czecho-Slovakia: “The Field Marshal appeared a little confused at [my] personal attack on his own good faith and assured me that he had himself known nothing of the decision before it had been taken. . . . Though I was in a hurry, he insisted on showing me, with much pride, the great structural alterations which he was making in his house at Karinhall and which include a new dining room to hold an incredible number of guests and to be all marble and hung with tapestries. . . . He also produced with pride some drawings of tapestries, mostly representing naked ladies and labeled with the names of the various virtues, such as Goodness, Mercy, Purity, etc. I told him that they looked at least pacific, but that I failed to see Patience among them.”

> On a conversation on August 16 with State Secretary Baron von Weizsacker: “I was impressed by one thing, namely Baron von Weizsacker’s detachment and calm. He seemed very confident and professed to believe that Russian assistance to the Poles would not only be entirely negligible but that the U. S. S. R. would even, in the end, join in sharing in the Polish spoils. Nor did my insistence on the inevitability of British intervention seem to move him.”

> On Crisis Visit No. 1 (August 23) with Hitler: “During the whole of this first conversation Hitler was excitable and uncompromising. He made no long speeches, but his language was violent and exaggerated both as regards England and Poland. . . . While I did not wish to try to deny that persecutions occurred (of Poles also in Germany) the German press accounts were highly exaggerated. He had mentioned the castration of Germans. I happened to be aware of one case. The German in question was a sex maniac who had been treated as he deserved. Hitler’s retort was that there had not been one case, but six. . . . I contested every point and kept calling his statements inaccurate but the only effect was to launch him on some fresh tirade.”

> On Hitler Visit No. 2 (later the same day): “. . . He was quite calm the second time and never raised his voice once. . . . He was, he said, 50 years old: he preferred war now to when he would be 55 or 60. I told him it was absurd to talk of extermination. Nations could not be exterminated and a peaceful, prosperous Germany was a British interest. His answer was that it was England who was fighting for the lesser races whereas he was fighting only for Germany: Germans would this time fight to the last man: it would have been different in 1914 if he had been Chancellor then.”

> Third Hitler visit (August 25): “The only signs of excitement on Herr Hitler’s part were when he referred to Polish persecutions. . . . [He] said there had been an other case of castration. Among the points mentioned by Herr Hitler were: That the only winner of another European war would be Japan ; that he was by nature an artist, not a politician, and once the Polish question had been settled he would end his life as an artist not as a warmonger; he did not want to turn Germany into nothing but a military barracks and he would only do so if forced to do so; that once the Polish question was settled, he himself would settle down. . . .”

Regarding the Polish guarantees Sir Nevile said : “Our word was our word, and we had never and would never break it. In the old days Germany’s word had the same value and I quoted a passage from a German book (which Herr Hitler had read) about Field Marshal von Bliicher’s exhortation to his troops when hurrying to support Wellington at Waterloo : ‘Forward, my children ; I have given my word to my brother, Wellington, and you cannot wish me to break it.’ Herr Hitler at once intervened to observe that things were different 125 years ago.”

> Fifth Hitler interview (August 29) : “The interview this evening was of a stormy character and Hitler was far less reasonable than yesterday. A press announcement this evening that five more Germans had been killed in Poland and news of the Polish mobilization had obviously excited him.

“He kept saying he wanted British friendship more than anything in the world, but could not sacrifice Germany’s vital interests for it, and for His Majesty’s Government to make a bargain over such a matter was an unendurable proposition. All my attempts to correct this complete misrepresentation of the case did not seem to impress him.”

> Tirade of the whole series came on August 30 not from Hitler but from Ribbentrop. When Sir Nevile Henderson said that Great Britain was advising Poland to avoid provocative action, “von Ribbentrop replied that His Majesty’s Government’s advice had had cursed (verflucht) little effect. I mildly retorted that I was surprised to hear such language from th Minister for Foreign Affairs.” Ribbentrop “read out in German aloud at top speed” a series of demands on Poland a then refused to let Sir Nevile see the text.”Herr von Ribbentrop’s whole demeanor during our unpleasant interview was apin Herr Hitler at his worst. . . .”

> On September 1, when Poland had ready been invaded, Sir Nevile handed Ribbentrop the British Government’s ultimatum. “As I was leaving Herr von Ribbentrop gave me a long explanation of why he had been unable to give me the text. He was courteous and polite this evening. I am inclined to believe Herr Hitler’s answer will be an attempt to avoid war with Great Britain and France, but it is likely to be one which we can accept.” It was not.