The Fascist Offensive - 1938
The Fascist Offensive - 1938
In November 1937, Lord Halifax, who was then the Lord Privy Seal, went to Berlin under the pretext of attending a hunting exposition. During this visit he met with Hitler. This was another one of several attempts since 1933, to bring the Reich into what it was called “collective security”. Hitler’s Germany left the League Of Nations in 1933.
The visit was a failure regarding any practical results. However, it was very valuable in that Hitler at last, defined his terms. Lord Halifax was shocked at the extremity of the German demand and, Hitler was not boasting. He was quite serious.
According to Manchester Guardian, Hitler presented Halifax with a series of points as follows:
- Germany agreed to rejoin the League, provided that the Covenant was redrafted, the machinery for sanctions scrapped, the League divorced from the peace treaties, and the war guilt clause cancelled.
- Germany insisted on the reorganization of Czechoslovakia on a cantonal system, with something like autonomy for the Sudeten Germans.
- Germany asked Great Britain from any political or diplomatic assistance to Austria.
- Germany pledged itself to refrain from raising the issue of colonies for six years, if Britain would in return promise to assist German colonial claims after that period.
- Germany asked that Britain recognize the Italian conquest of Ethiopia and the Franco government of Spain, in return for which the Germans would work for the restoration of peace in Spain.
To understand the purpose and the meaning of Lord Halifax’s meeting with Hitler, we have to put it into the proper perspective of those times.
Starting with My Kampf, Hitler was an open book. He made public all his future intentions to the European powers and was ignored. They thought he was a nut case. If you look at his demands above, what he could not get from the European powers, he eventually got them by himself. The powers, and especially England could have stopped him but didn’t.
The best reference book I found is Inside Europe by John Gunther, a time capsule, the 1938 edition.
