Berlin Diary (29 page)

B
ELGRADE
,
November
26

Here for another “anniversary” broadcast like the one at Warsaw.

L
ATER
.
On train to Rome
.—Miss Campbell from our London office phoned at six p.m. to tell me the Pope was dying. I caught young Sulzberger of the New York
Times
at a cocktail party, induced him to do my broadcast Sunday, explained how, and caught this train at nine p.m. for Rome.

R
OME
,
November
29

The Pope has once again fought off death after a severe heart attack on Tuesday. Arranged with Father Delaney, a brilliant and extremely pleasant young Jesuit from New York attached to Vatican Radio, to help us in the elaborate coverage I’ve arranged for the Pope’s death. Conferences yesterday and today with the Vatican authorities on the matter, which of course is extremely delicate since he is still alive. But we all agreed we must make our preparations. The Italians are putting in extra lines for us from St. Peter’s to their studios. Much good talk and spaghetti and Chianti and to Paris by plane tomorrow though an Italian friend of mine who is also a close friend of Ciano’s tipped me off I ought to stay for tomorrow’s meeting of the Fascist Chamber. But an urgent matter of ours with the French government needs straightening out.

P
ARIS
,
December
1

My friend was trying to do me a favour. The Fascists in the Chamber yesterday staged a big demonstration
against France
yelling: “Tunis! Savoy! Nice! Jibouti!” But the Quai d’Orsay here claims Daladier will say no. Munich was enough for the moment. A German refugee and his wife, he a former trades-union official, she a novelist of sorts, came to my hotel an hour after I arrived last evening (my Italian plane had a narrow escape when a strut broke between Rome and Genoa, and I was still a little nervous) and told me they were going to jump off a bridge over the Seine and end their lives. I took them around the corner for a good meal at Le Petit Riche and they calmed down. I hope I’ve persuaded them not to jump into the Seine. They had received an order of expulsion from France effective next week, though he has been doing some work for the French government. Shall try to intervene at the Quai d’Orsay for them.

P
ARIS
,
December
6

Bonnet, one of the chief architects of Munich and a sinister figure in French politics, today signed a “good neighbour” declaration with Ribbentrop, another sinister one, at the Quai d’Orsay. Paris, I find, has somewhat recovered from its defeatist panic of the Munich days. When Ribbentrop drove through the streets from the Gare d’Orsay, they were completely deserted. Several Cabinet members and many leading figures here have refused to attend the social functions being accorded him. On the other hand Ribbentrop’s French admirers run high up in political, business, and social circles. Today’s agreement states that the two countries solemnly declare that no territorial or border question now exists and that they will consult in case of future disagreement. What a farce!

P
ARIS
,
December
15

Tess and baby back today on the
Queen Mary
. Off to Geneva for the Christmas holidays.

G
STAAD
, S
WITZERLAND
,
December
26

One of the most beautiful mountain spots I’ve ever seen and the snow so grand I’ve taken up skiing again for the first time since my accident six years ago. The wealthy English and French here in force and inanely oblivious of Europe’s state. Last night at the big Christmas ball I found the merry-makers so nauseating that we left early. This has been a year—the baby, the
Anschluss
, the Czech crisis, and Munich. As usual Tess and I wonder where we’ll be a year from now, and what the year will bring.

R
OME
,
January
11, 1939

Chamberlain and Halifax arrived today to appease the Duce. At the station Chamberlain, looking more birdlike and vain than when I last saw him at Munich, walked, umbrella in hand, up and down the platform nodding to a motley crowd of British local residents whom Mussolini had slyly invited to greet him. Mussolini and Ciano, in black Fascist uniforms, sauntered along behind the two ridiculous-looking Englishmen, Musso displaying a fine smirk on his face the whole time. When he passed me he was joking under his breath with his son-in-law, passing wise-cracks. He looks much older, much more vulgar than he used to, his face having grown fat. My local spies tell me he is much taken with a blonde young lady of nineteen whom he’s installed in a villa across from his residence and that
the old vigour and concentration on business is beginning to weaken. Chamberlain, we’re told, much affected by the warmth of the greeting he got at the stations along the way to Rome. Can it be he doesn’t know how they’re
arranged
?

G
ENEVA
,
January
19

The League in its last death-throes has been a sorry sight the last four days. Bonnet and Halifax here to see that there is no nonsense to delay Franco’s victory. Del Vayo yesterday made a dignified speech before the Council. Halifax, to show his colours, got up in the middle of it and ostentatiously strode out. Had a long talk with Del Vayo tonight. He was depressed, discouraged, and though he did not say so, I gathered it is all up with the Republic. Franco, with his Germans and Italians, is at the gates of Barcelona. Lunch with Edgar [Mowrer], Knick, Harry Masdyck, and Mme. Tabouis. Much talk, but our side has lost.

R
OME
,
February
12

Friday morning about six fifteen Cortesi phoned me at Geneva from Rome to say the Pope had died. There was a train for Milan at seven two a.m. I aroused Tess and she helped me catch it. Today, Sunday, broadcast from the piazza in front of St. Peter’s, stopping people who were filing out of the church after viewing Pius XI’s remains as they lay in state, and interviewing them. As I am not a Catholic and there is much about the church and the Vatican that I do not know—though I’ve been studying countless books for a year—I am getting churchmen to do most of the broadcasts.