Not that I am among those who seek to diminish
the importance, at this tremendous juncture, of the Russo- German pact. The nightmare which has for so many years haunted the sleep of our own Foreign Office officials has at last come true. Germany has gained immense strategic and economic advantage. Russia, it would seem, has gained that Europeon war from which she hopes to emerge as tertius gaudens. And the implications for Europe are serious indeed. I fear that I agree with the view ex- pressed by Hermann Rauschning who has for long fore- cast this " great revolutionary coup" in German foreign policy : " A German-Russian alliance," he wrote in 1938, " means simply ihe confluence of two streams which run toward the same sea, the sea of world revolution. National Socialism will submit to Gleichschaltung with the Bolshevik world revolution, or will sub- ject that revolution to Gleichschaltung with itself; it amounts either way to much the same thing. It in will be no ordinary coalition between two Powers for normal practical purposes. Germany and Russia, if they come together, will radically transform the world. That alliance is Hitler's great coming stroke."
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