A SPECTATOR

'S NOTEBOOK

IT would be a mistake to go too far in drawing inferences about the appointments of new German Ambassadors to Madrid, the Vatican and elsewhere, but the choice of men is certainly notable, particularly in view of die new note being struck by Nazi propa- gandists. The three principal figures concerned, Dr. Hans Dieckhoff, Baron von Weizsacker and Di. Gaus, are old-time professional diplomats, not only pre-Nazi but, I should have said, secretly, at any rate, anti-Nazi when I last saw them, which in the case of the first two was some two or three years before the war. I do not like most Germans, but I always liked these, particularly Weizsacker and Gaus. The former has had a career curiously like Sir Alexander Cadogan's, for both of them were first of all head of the League of Nations Section and then Permanent Tinder- Secretary in their respective Foreign Offices. Dr. Gaus was a jurist who was never concerned with politics, or even with ordinary diplomacy. In the five or six years from 1924 onwards, while Sir Austen Chamberlain, M. Briand and Dr. Stresemann were colla- borating, he, Sir Cecil Hurst and M. Fromageot worked constantly and closely together on many international problems, and each of them had a very genuine respect for the others. Dieckhoff has an intimate knowledge of Britain and America, for he was for several years Counsellor of the German Embassy in London, for several years head of the Anglo-American Department in the German Foreign Office and for three years German Ambassador at Washing- ton. He at Madrid, von Weizsacker at the Vatican, and Dr. Gaus as Special Ambassador (available presumably for any particular mission) may have interesting roles to play in the unfolding of Germany's new diplomatic offensive.

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A " brief " in Monday's Daily Telegraph to the effect that, accord- ing to Vichy radio, "Laval received Mr. Sisley Huddleston, the British writer, to whom the French Government recently granted naturalisation," restores to the public eye a singular and unattractive personality who secured for a time what always seemed to me a quite spurious journalistic reputation. A fluent and plausible writer, he at different times represented at Paris the Observer, the West- minster Gazette, the Christian Science Monitor, and even for a brief period during Northcliffe's regime The Times. Once during the Peace Conference he was present, together with every other British correspondent, at a confidential Press Conference addressed by Mr. Lloyd George. A day or two later a full report of the statements made to the Press by " a prominent British spokesman," or words to that effect, from Huddleston's pen appeared in the Westminster Gazette and attracted considerable attention. Huddle- ston described the incident, with great complacency, in a chapter in a book he wrote on the Peace Conference. His disclosure he modestly headed "The Turning-Point of the Conference." As to the ethics of the affair, he was ready, of course, to defend his action. The fact remains that out of thirty or forty correspondents who were present, all but one—Sisley Huddleston—maintained a. complete and honourable silence, excellent copy though a report of Lloyd George's statements would have made. Now Huddleston becomes a citizen of Vichy France and is received by Laval.

* * * * A fortnight ago I deplored the fact that Mark Bonham-Carter had been posted as " missing " in North Africa. I am glad to say he is now reported " wounded and prisoner."

The contrast between the loss of 55 bombers in the raids on Pilsen and Mannheim on Friday night and one in the attack on Spezia two nights later is striking, but it was never supposed that the R.A.F. machines could cover the 70o miles to the Skoda Works and get home another loo miles without serious loss. The question inevitably arises, was it worth it? There are, of course, some factors that cannot be precisely weighed—the satisfaction that would be given to Russia, for example, by the damage inflicted on the great armament works that so largely feed the German armies on the Eastern front. But take more precise measurements. The loss of 55 heavy bombers must mean in value well over Li,000,000—say £1,500,000. It means, what is much more serious, the loss of some 40o experienced and gallant men—though not all of them need be written off as fatal casualties. There can be little doubt that much more than Lx,soo,000 damage was done to the Skoda Works, that far more than 40o fatal casualties were inflicted on German workers (a large number of the Czech workers at Skoda have been drafted to Germany and their places taken by Germans), and-that the flow of munitions from the great plant at Pilsen has been substantially diminished. The balance is therefore decisively on the right side —provided the R.A.F. commands such reserves that the losses make no difference to its first-line strength. It undonbtedly does.

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The death of Brigadier F. H. Kisch, killed by an enemy mine in Tunisia, robs the Eighth Army of its Chief Engineer and a brilliant soldier—incidentally, a brilliant Jewish soldier. Everyone at the Peace Conference of 1919 knew of Colonel Kisch, who was one of the ablest members of the War Office contingent there. An ardent Zionist, he became in 1922 chairman of the Palestine Zionist Executive at Jerusalem. If he could he would have adopted Palestinian nationality, but that would have involved relinquishing British, since Palestine is a mandated territory, not a colony. It is worth remembering today that when Kisch was a member of the Russian Intelligence section of the War Office in 1917-18 he was one of the very few who were convinced from the first that the Bolshevik revolution represented something fundamental, and that the new regime had come to stay.

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I hoped I had finished with underbelly, but not quite. New characteristics of it are revealed in information regarding it imparted by the Observer, to the effect that " through this important Rhine- land centre flows much of the heavy traffic carrying munitions from the industrial north to help underpin the soft underbelly of the Axis." I have never understood precisely what an Axis is, or why ; it is something to know that it is an organism possessing an under- belly capable of being underpinned—and, I hope, over-stabbed.

* * * * An eminent jurist of my acquaintance, a little surfeited with study of the articles of military correspondents, offers a weighty dictum on strategy himself: "The way to win the war is to drive a wedge into all the hedgehogs by means of a three-pronged pincer-attack, and thus prevent them from being used as springboards." I would never put this guide to victory at Keitel's disposal if it were not certain that the British and American General Staffs would see

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