A SPECTATOR'S NOTEBOOK
ANOTE on certain aspects of the situation reaches me from a German source in which I place reliance ; it may be summarised broadly as follows : The German people —as opposed to the Nazi Party—does not regard Munich a; a victory. Chamberlain is the hero, for bringing peace, not Hitler for securing Sudetendeutschland. All the German people want is peace, and it is assumed everywhere that peace is now definitely established ; it would be the more d fficult for Hitler to lead the country, or even the army, to the brink of war again. It is apparently, moreover, a mistake to believe that the average German knows nothing of what is happening in the world. On the one hand Dr. Goebbels' propaganda has overreached itself, with the result that no one pays any attention to what he reads in German papers or hears in public speeches—there is universal testimony that Goebbels never succeeded in making the man in the street feel the slightest animosity against the Czechs—but foreign wireless news is listened to with avidity —in particular news from one station (not Moscow) which it is as well not to mention. When Chamberlain, in English, and Daladier, in French, came over, the fact that these statesmen were using the quiet, dignified tones of normal human beings, instead of bellowing themselves hoarse (" tierisches " was the term applied to this) like Nuremberg rhetoricians, made a deep impression, which was intensified when the German translation followed. It would obviously be a disaster if the B.B.C. discontinued its foreign broadcasts.
* * * * From another and quite different source I learn, again on entirely reliable authority, that one of the reasons why Herr von Ribbentrop affirmed with such persistence, and with such effect, that Great Britain did not mean business in the matter of Czechoslovakia was that he was able to produce letters from various English friends urging him and Herr Hitler to stand firm and assuring him that if they did they would get what they wanted. I cannot give the names of the English friends in question, for I do not know them ; I wish I did. I have heard from time to time of German Generals and others who have urged friends in England to persuade the Government to stand firm and call Hitler's bluff. The procedure looks rather less attractive viewed the other way round.
* * * * My private informant at Olympia writes : Anyone who is suffering from the strain and reaction of the last few weeks, with their alternation of hopes and fears, eulogies and jere- miads, will do well to visit Olympia. In adjoining halls two picked contingents are to be found. In one, the aris- tocracy of England's cows combines amazing energy in milk production with complete absence of emotion. In the other, the British Legion Volunteer Police, called into being with a no less amazing energy and efficiency, holds the floor in an unusually exact sense of the word ; for at night retired Admirals and Generals spread their palliasses on the concrete cheek by jowl with ex-privates and ordinary seamen. Even more remarkable than the democratic structure of this force is its truly astounding phlegm. What their future duties may be, if indeed they will be called upon for any duties at all, its members do not know. But a combination of enthusiasm which need fear no challenge from the under- thirties with the quiet determination and sobriety of outlook born of years has produced within three days a disciplined body of men from whose demeanour the rather nerve-shocked citizen, not to mention the professional orator and publicist, might well draw inspiration.
* * * * How news travels from a London luncheon-table to Moscow I have no means of knowing, and no special desire to know. But in the case of Colonel Lindbergh's remarks on the relative air-strengths of European Powers it seems to have travelled accurately. Now that Moscow has seen fit to mention it there is not much point in concealing the fact that Colonel Lindbergh did say in London that not only had Germany a stronger air-force than Britain, France or Russia, but that she was as strong as all the three put together. That is only an opinion, and Colonel Lindbergh is not infallible, but the air is not an altogether unfamiliar element to him. But the luncheon-table at which the remark was made was not Lady Astor's ; there are one or two other spots in London besides 4 St. James's Square where luncheon is served on most days of the week.
* * * * The reports that containers for gas-masks are about to be distributed appear to correspond with no impending action. It seems a pity. If I had a container I could put my gas-mask in it, if I had a gas-mask. But the London borough in which I live has never got further than telling its inhabitants whether they have large, small or medium faces ; the masks were to be given out on declaration of war, which would pretty certainly be after the first air-raid. But if we are not to have containers the mask is probably safer in the borough's hands than mine; if the masks that have been distributed elsewhere are not either collected and stored, or put in the containers which report says may some day be given out, the wastage will soon be in the region of some 90 per cent. ; it is probably pretty high already. The Home Office and the local authorities did well in getting the masks so promptly and widely dis- tributed ; indifference to their future fate is unfortunate.
* * * * The American authorities were surely suffering from some shortage of common sense when they refused Mr. John Strachey leave to land on their shores—or rather on their mainland, for Mr. Strachey was, in fact, set on American soil at Ellis Island. Whatever Mr. Strachey's views—and he has been in several political camps in his time—it is doing him rather excessive honour to believe him capable of gravely perverting the United States. His chief activity in this country is the Left Book Club, where he is associated in a triumvirate with Mr. Gollancz and Professor Laski. He is not generally considered more dangerous than Professor Laski, who lands unimpeded in New York amid the acclaim
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