Herr von Ribbentrop, during his unfortunate tenure of the post
of Ambassador to the Court of St. James's, proved un- able to see the wood because of the trees; today he fails to believe in our armour because of the chinks. He is well aware that one of the widest chinks is our propensity to judge each case upon its merits. He would phrase it less kindly than that. " The English," thus would he assure his Fiihrer, " will accept any necessity provided they can make a virtue of it. If you menace them directly it is quite possible that they will resist. What you should do is to avoid suggesting to them that they are yielding to a menace in order that they may pretend that they are ' judging the case on its merits,' or ' trying to see the other fellow's point of view.' You will find, as you have found already, that their delight in these two phrases proves most profitable to their enemies."
Herr Hitler will be impressed by this argument and will apply the treatment suggested by his Foreign Secretary to the problem of Danzig. The " tourist traffic " to that picturesque city will continue unchecked in the hope that Poland will be obliged to intervene. She will then be declared the aggressor. If that gambit fails, then the Senate of Danzig will, with admirable spontaneity, vote for the inclusion of their city within the Reich. The full force of Nazi propaganda will then be turned upon this country. It will be argued that all Senates are composed of nice elderly gentlemen and that this particular Senate was elected upon the most approved democratic model. It will also be represented that, under the principle of self-determination a German city has every right to vote itself into the Reich.
The Poles will resist this incorporation, even as we or the French would resist if the Thames and the Seine were our only outlets to the sea and large German colonies existed at Tilbury or Rouen. The Germans will then say that the Poles are behaving in a most undemocratic manner and we should be summoned to " judge the case on its merits." Herr von Ribbentrop estimates that this appeal will be so potent that, while German army corps are crunch- ing through the Corridor, we shall be scurrying round seeking for mediation on the part of Mussolini and the Pope. Such mediation may, or may not, prove successful; but in the, hours that intervene the Peace Front will have been broken and the keys of Eastern Europe will have been delivered into Hitler's hands.
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