THE LATEST VOLUME of German foreign policy documents (HMSO, 40s.),
those covering the eight weeks before the outbreak of war in September, 1939, seems to me to reveal very little. The prospect entertained by Lord Halifax of Hitler being cheered into Buckingham Palace with the King was probably not much more illusory than the actuality of Bulganin and Khrushchev being ushered into Windsor Castle and the presence of the Queen; but his remark to Hitler's private emissary that if they were both dictators they would probably agree, with its implied understanding of the German point of View on Czechoslovakia, is naive to the point of cynicism. Also naive was the Duke of Windsor's telegram to Hitler and the King of Italy at the end of August, 1939, calling for peace in the name of humanity. But to complain that it was an unpardonable intrusion of royalty into politics is rather hard, for the Duke had no official status, and had met Hitler. Though he was another pawn, 'he was no more unrealistic than many =embers of the British Government or, for that matter, the Pope, who broadcast in much the same terms on August 24.
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