Berlin Diary (31 page)

I could not go on the air afterwards until the Germans
had received the approved version of Hitler’s speech, which, as a matter of fact, differed not at all from the original. Hitler very bellicose today, obviously in a rage against Chamberlain, who in the House yesterday enunciated at last a complete change in British foreign policy and announced that Britain would go to the aid of Poland
if Polish independence were threatened. Off to Warsaw tomorrow to see when the German attack is expected.

W
ARSAW
,
April
2

Attended a pitiful air-show this Sunday afternoon, my Polish friends apologizing for the cumbersome slow bombers and the double-decker fighters—all obsolete. They showed a half-dozen modern fighters that looked fast enough, but that was all. How can Poland fight Germany with such an air force?

W
ARSAW
,
April
6

Beck [the Polish Foreign Minister], who committed this country to a pro-Nazi, anti-French policy for so many years, has been in London and tonight we have an Anglo-Polish communiqué announcing that the two countries will sign a permanent agreement providing for mutual assistance in case of an attack on either of them by a third power. I think this will halt Hitler for the time being, since force is something he understands and respects and there is no doubt in my mind after a week here that the Poles will fight and that if Britain and France fight too, he is in a hole. I feel uneasy about three things only: Poland’s terrible strategic position since Germany (with Poland’s help and encouragement!) moved her army into the Protectorate and Slovakia, thus flanking this country on the south (it is
already flanked on the north by East Prussia); the West Wall, which, when completed next winter, will discourage France and Britain from attacking Germany in the west and thereby aiding Poland
; and, finally, Russia
. I have dined and drunk with a dozen Poles this week—from the Foreign Office, the army, and the old Pilsudski legionnaires who run
Polskie Radio
—and they will not bring themselves to realize that they cannot afford the luxury of being enemies of both Russia and Germany and that they must choose and that if they bring in Russia along with France and Britain they are saved. They reach for another piece of this wonderful smoked Vistula salmon they have here and wash it down with one of the fifty-seven varieties of vodka and point out the dangers of Russian help. To be sure, there is danger. There is the danger that the Red army, once on Polish soil, will not leave, that it will Bolshevize the country with its propaganda (this country has been so misruled by the colonels that no doubt it does offer fertile ground for the Bolsheviks), and so on. True. Then make your peace with the Nazis. Give them Danzig and the Corridor. Never! they say.

Still, on this spring day after the British guarantee we all feel better. Fodor, who leaves by boat tonight for Easter holidays in England (he’s barred from crossing Germany), optimistic. The Embassy people, Biddle and the military, happy. Only Second Secretary Landreth Harrison is sceptical. He keeps pointing out the weaknesses of the Poles to the point of exasperation. He is a man of prejudices, though intelligent.

Rumours today of German troop movements, but the Poles discount them.
Polskie Radio
still stalling on their new short-wave transmitter. Bad. Off to Paris tomorrow morning for an Easter broadcast, then to Geneva for Easter Monday.

B
ERLIN
,
April
7

When the Orient Express pulled into the Schlesischer Bahnhof here this evening, the first thing I saw was Huss’s face on the platform and I knew there was bad news. He said London had phoned to get me off the train as the British had reports of German troop movements on the Polish frontier. I had watched for these as we came across the border, but saw nothing. London was nervous about Albania, he said. “What’s happened there?” I asked. The Italians went in there this morning, he said. Today. Good Friday. Have satisfied myself the Germans are not contemplating anything against Poland this Easter, so will take the plane to Paris tomorrow morning.

L
ONDON
,
April
23

Broadcast with Lord Strabolgi, my main point being that the whole life of Germany
was now geared to war, but that there were signs of economic cracking. Iron was so short they were tearing down the iron fences of the Reich. And the nerves of the German people were becoming frayed and they were against going to war. Strabolgi so cheered by my news he asked me to come down and address a committee meeting at the House of Lords, but I declined. Flying back to Berlin for the Reichstag, April 28.

B
ERLIN
,
April
28

Hitler in the Reichstag today denounced a couple more treaties (I could hardly repress a chuckle at this part of his speech) and answered Roosevelt’s plea that he give assurance that he will not attack the rest of
the independent nations of Europe. His answer to the President rather shrewd, I think, in that it was designed to play on the sympathies of the appeasers and anti-New-Dealers at home and the former in Britain and France. He claimed he had asked the nations which Roosevelt thought threatened whether they so considered themselves and “in all cases the reply was negative.” States like Syria, he said, he could not ask because “they are at present not in possession of their freedom, but are occupied and consequently deprived of their rights by the military agents of democratic countries.” And “the fact has obviously escaped Mr. Roosevelt’s notice that Palestine is at present occupied not by German troops but by the English.” And so on in this sarcastic manner, from which, with a masterly touch—Hitler was a superb actor today—he drew every last drop of irony. America champions the conference method of settling disputes? he asked. But was it not the first nation to shrink from participation in the League? “It was not until many years later that I resolved to follow the example of America and likewise leave the largest conference in the world.”

In the end, however, Hitler agreed to give each of the states listed by the President “an assurance of the kind desired by Mr. Roosevelt.” But of course this was just a little Nazi hokum. The sausage-necked deputies below us rocked with raucous laughter throughout the session, which was just what Hitler desired. It was a superb example of his technique of laughing off embarrassing questions, for Roosevelt’s proposal was a reasonable one after all.

The breaking of two more treaties was loudly applauded by the rubber-stamp “parliamentarians.” Hitler denounces the naval accord with Britain on the grounds that London’s “encirclement policy” has put
it out of force—a flimsy excuse; of course no excuse at all. The second treaty denounced, the 1934 pact with Poland
, is more serious, the excuse, incidentally, being the same. Hitler in his speech reveals the content of his “offer” to Poland: Danzig to be returned to Germany, and the Reich given an extra-territorial road through the corridor to East Prussia. To scare the Poles he says the offer was made “only once.” That is, his terms are higher today. Still much doubt here among the informed whether Hitler has made up his mind to begin a world war for the sake of Danzig. My guess is he hopes to get it by the Munich method.

L
ONDON
,
June
(
undated
)

Leaving tomorrow on the maiden voyage of the new
Mauretania
for home. Tess cables she has just been granted her citizenship by a Virginia court.