Faked Passports (19 page)

“I'll come to that later. What else do you reckon that you've got out of this tie-up with the Bolsheviks?”

“We can draw on them for foodstuffs and later when we have reorganised their railways we shall be able to obtain almost unlimited supplies of raw materials which will nullify the British blockade.”

Gregory shook his head. “I don't believe that. You're getting a certain amount of stuff, of course—Stalin has to put up some sort of a show—but his industrial system is still so ill-organised that he has a perfectly good excuse for not helping you to any appreciable extent. And even if you send hundreds of experts there their efforts will deliberately be sabotaged—for the simple reason that Stalin does not mean you to win this war.”

“What grounds have you for saying that?”

“Simply that from his point of view this war is only an episode—a struggle in which he does not wish to be concerned. It may prove either inconvenient or useful to him, according to how he plays his cards in his long-term policy for the reconstruction of Russia; which is the only thing that really interests him.”

“And what do you deduce from this?”

“That the Russo-German friendship pact is not worth the
paper it is written on; it was just one of Stalin's cards and a very high one. He still regards Germany as his only really dangerous, potential enemy. If she emerges from the present struggle victorious his situation will be worse than ever. You know Hitler's technique. With the Western Powers disposed of he might suddenly decide to rescue the German-speaking population of South Russia from Russian oppression. Then Stalin would have to face the might of Germany on his own, but …”

“Why, then, did he not go in with the Western Powers when he had the chance?” Goering interrupted.

“Firstly, because he didn't want to go to war at all if he could avoid it, and if he'd gone in with the Western Powers he'd obviously have had to resist an invasion once the German armies had overrun Poland. Secondly, he considered that the Allies were quite capable of coming out on top without his assistance. Thirdly, if he'd lined up with the Democracies he would have had to continue to observe the covenant of the League of Nations, which would have tied his hands in the Baltic.”

“Ha, ha! I wondered when all this rigmarole was going to get us to Finland.”

“We're doing very nicely and we shall be there in a moment. In the meantime I hope I've made it clear that Stalin had nothing to gain and everything to lose by coming in with the Democracies. He simply gambled on the fact—very shrewdly, in my view—that, whether they won or not, by keeping out he would be able to strengthen his hand against Germany.

“So far he hasn't done too badly, either.” Gregory pointed. “Just look at the map. As his share of the swag you had to let him have half Poland. That enables him to build a Maginot Line there 400 miles in advance of his old frontier, which will make it infinitely more difficult for you should you ever contemplate marching into the Ukraine. Then where are your other natural bases for an invasion of Russia? Obviously the most suitable are Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia; all small countries, quite unable to resist any pressure exerted by a big neighbour, and all having considerable German populations. By one of your propaganda campaigns such as you used with the Sudeten Germans in Czechoslovakia you might easily have found it necessary to establish yourselves as the protector of these little neutrals and have established bases in them; but by his pact with you Stalin has been able to forestall you there, and it is he who has done this instead of you. Now where is the only
remaining jumping-off place which you still might use for an attack on European Russia?”

“Finland,” murmured Goering, “Finland.”

“Of course. The Finnish frontier is only twenty miles from Leningrad. During the last war you trained a battalion of Finns who afterwards officered the Finnish Army in the War of Independence. You also sent von der Goltz and German troops there to help fight the Bolsheviks. Finland is therefore definitely pro-German and extremely anti-Russian.

“In the event of Germany's emerging from this war still unbroken she might at any time form a secret alliance with Finland. The Mannerheim Line is quite strong enough to resist an attack until Germany could land a considerable expeditionary force in the Finnish ports to reinforce it. People are laughing about the recent Moscow broadcast in which the Russians declared that the Finns were threatening them. On the face of it, the suggestion that a nation of four million people can threaten one of a hundred and eighty millions is laughable: but when we get down to the real root of the matter it is not laughable at all. The Kremlin obviously cannot announce the fact, but what they really mean is that at some future date four million Finns
backed by eighty million Germans
might constitute a threat to Russia, and of such a combination they have every reason to be very frightened indeed.”

Goering's impatient scowl had disappeared and he refilled both their glasses as Gregory went on:

“I haven't seen the English papers but I can give a pretty shrewd guess about the sort of stuff that many of them contain. They're saying: ‘Now Stalin has at last come out in his true colours and shown himself for the brigand that he is. All his talk about preserving peace because it is the workers who suffer most in any war was mere eyewash. He doesn't give a damn about the workers and has revived all the old imperialistic aims of the Tsars. He's out for conquest and the rotten swine means to grab everything he can while the rest of us have got our hands full.'”

“That's right,” Goering nodded. “I see a summary of everything appearing in your papers and that is the line most of them take.”

“Well, they're off the mark. Stalin may be a thug but he's not an imperialist. He would still prefer to have peace if he could get what he wants without war—and he's been successful so far—but it's absolutely vital to him that if Russia is to be
secured from
German
aggression in the future he should close all her western approaches now, while he's got the chance. We may dislike Stalin and be sorry for these small neutrals whom he's blackmailing but we can't blame him, because it's his job to put the interests of Russia before everything else.”

“You think, then, that, if he can't get what he's after by threats, he really means to invade Finland?”

“I'm certain of it; because for the moment you can't possibly afford to scrap the Russo-German Pact and send aid to the Finns. If he waits, some major change in the international situation—a sudden peace move, perhaps—might rob him of his one great opportunity to bar that vulnerable north-western gate. Therefore he must act at once—and by that I mean within the next few weeks.”

“Why? Climatic conditions?”

“Yes. The lakes and swamps make Finland's eastern frontier almost impassable from April till November, and from February to April the snow is so deep that major operations are impossible; whereas from the end of November up till the end of January the lakes are frozen over and the ice thick enough to carry transport but there is still insufficient snow to prove a serious obstacle. That is why, having gobbled up Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia, Stalin had to wait until now before he could bring real pressure to bear on Finland. If he waits until January it will be too late to launch an offensive with any hope of a quick break through, and if he waits until next November he may have lost his chance for good and all.”

“Yes, yes; you're right about that. But do you think the Finns will fight?”

“God knows. They're a brave people but their numbers are so small and the weight of the Russian tanks and bombers that can be brought against them is tremendous. If they do fight they risk utter annihilation and the destruction of every town in the country, but it is certainly to your interest that they should do so.”

“Not necessarily. Personally, I have always been for curbing the power of the Bolsheviks, and if Russia secures her bases in Finland either by threats or by overrunning the country it will be another blow to German prestige in the Baltic. On the other hand, if Russia starts even a minor war it will make it much more difficult for her to fulfil her obligations to us and we don't wish to give her any further excuse for delaying the supplies of
material that she's promised. If the Finns give in we get our supplies; if they fight—well …” Goering shrugged.

“Listen.” Gregory set down his glass with a bang. “You're not going to get those supplies—or, anyway, nothing like the quantity you have been led to believe—so you might as well count that out. I tell you Stalin doesn't mean to help Germany win the war; therefore you'd be mad to allow him to get away with the rape of Finland if you can possibly prevent it.”

“I'm doing what I can to persuade Russia to moderate her demands. You heard me say that I intend to see the Soviet Ambassador tomorrow morning.”

“That's not enough. You're in no position to exert any pressure on the Kremlin so they won't take the least notice of you. Your game is to tackle this job from the other end and to persuade the Finns to tell the Russians to go to Hell.”

“To do so would be to go against the
Fuehrer's
policy. If it leaked out that I had privately been in communication with the Finnish Government there would be the very devil to pay.”

“Perhaps. But there are ways and means of ensuring that it doesn't leak out—and, anyhow, I'm not concerned with the
Fuehrer's
policy. He thinks that he is going to win this war, doesn't he? But you don't.”

Goering smiled. “As I'm talking to a man who is already as good as dead I don't mind admitting that I think it unlikely. If we had attacked France and Britain right away we might have pulled it off, but I was overruled about that; the others insisted that once the Polish business was a
fait accompli
the Western Powers would throw in their hand. But when I say I think it unlikely that we shall win I do not at all mean that we shall necessarily lose, because, as I've told you, Germany can hold out against the blockade indefinitely.”

“Right. Let's assume, then, that this year, next year or in five years' time, when everybody is thoroughly fed up, there will be a peace by negotiation. Germany may still be strong enough to insist on retaining her Austrian, Czechoslovakian and Polish territories; but is that enough? She will still be fenced-in by customs barriers and emigration restrictions. You may be quite certain that Britain and France will not give up any of their Colonies, and if you go on sinking neutral shipping as you have been doing Germans aren't going to find a ready welcome if they try to settle in other countries. It'll take you a few years to recover from the war. Then you'll be faced again with the
same old problem; the inevitable pressure of Germany's virile population will force her leaders to seek a new outlet.”

“Yes,” Goering nodded. “The Democracies sneer at our claim for
Lebensraum,
but they have no right to do so. We Germans cannot be bottled-up indefinitely and this question must be faced, if not at the peace conference then a few years later, when the distress of war has once more faded from the public mind.”

“Good. Then what are you going to do—have a third crack at Britain and France? That's not going to get you anywhere, because if the peace is one of negotiation Europe will remain an armed camp. But why should you when, if you could get the Ukraine, South Russia down to the Black Sea and a free hand to develop the resources of Asiatic Russia, you'd have an empire equal in its potentialities to the British or the French? Stalin is the bad boy of the family—nobody loves old ‘Joe'—so we're not going to his assistance, particularly after the help he is assumed to have given you against us in this present war. Obviously, then, Germany's future lies in the East.”

“Exactly what I have always maintained.”

“Like Stalin, then, you must forget the present and adopt a long-term policy. I think it's very doubtful if the Democracies will ever agree to make a peace with Hitler; they have no faith whatever in his word. But he's as good as said himself that he would be prepared to go into retirement if it were for the good of the Reich. Your situation is very different. You are the most popular of the Nazi leaders in Germany and, in spite of the war, your stock still stands pretty high in Britain. Clearly, therefore, if there is a negotiated peace while the Nazis are still in control of Germany you will be the new leader of the German nation.”

“Only with the
Fuehrer's
consent and approval.”

“Yes, yes; but we can take that for granted. Internal and external pressure will be too great for him to resist. My point is that you should not wait until supreme power is placed in your hands—possibly at some extremely difficult moment—but must make up your mind
now
what your policy is going to be when power comes to you, and shape events as far as possible so that conditions will be favourable for you to carry that policy out.”

Goering took a long drink and stared at Gregory. “Why the Hell do I allow you to talk to me like this?”

“Because you're not the fat, jolly fool that it suits you to let the masses think you, but one of the greatest statesmen in Europe; and you know that I'm talking sound sense.”

“Go on, then. What do you suggest that I should do?”

“Your long-term policy is an invasion of Russia three years after you have been able to secure a negotiated peace. Finland is your last stronghold in the Northern Baltic. As long as Finnish independence is maintained there is always an opening for you to negotiate a secret alliance with the Finns. Use Finland as your base and strike right down at Moscow. That is why Finnish independence must be maintained at all costs and, rather than that she should give a single base to Russia, by hook or by crook you've got to persuade her to fight.”