PZ 5749/39(1) 'Propaganda: Articles forwarded to Persian Gulf, Kabul & Katmandu for dissemination' [‎217v] (434/715)

i
'—V
6
twenty-fifth celebration of the battle of Tannenberg on the
27th August, and a German warship was scheduled to visit Danzig
at the same time and ostensibly for the same purpose. Early in
July I drew your Lordship’s attention to the menace involved by
these equivocal preparations, which corresponded so closely to
Hitler’s usual technique of preparing for all eventualities, undeiv
cover of a plausible excuse.
15. The first mutterings of the storm were heard on the
4th August. At four posts on the Danzig-East Prussian frontier,
the Polish Customs Inspectors were informed that they would not
be permitted henceforward to carry out their duties. Alarmed at
the gradual sapping of Polish rights and interests in the Free City,
the Polish Commissioner General there was at once instructed to
deliver a note to the Danzig Senate, warning the latter that the
Polish Government would react in the strongest manner if the work
of the inspectors was interfered with. The Senate subsequently
denied that it had issued any instructions to the effect alleged but
the German Government replied to what it described as the Polish
ultimatum by a verbal note, which was handed by the State
Secretary to the Polish Charge d’Affaires at Berlin on the 9th August.
The Polish Government was therein warned that any further demand
addressed to the Free City in the nature of an ultimatum or
containing threats of reprisals, would at once lead to an aggravation
of Polish-German relations, the responsibility for which would fall
on the Polish Government. The latter retorted on the following
day by a similar verbal note, denying the judicial right of Germany
to intervene in the affairs between Poland and the Free City, and
warning in its turn the German Government that ‘ ‘ any future
intervention by the latter to the detriment of Polish rights and
interests at Danzig would be considered as an act of aggression.”
16. I have little doubt but that the latter phrase served more
than anything else to produce that final brainstorm in Herr Hitler’s
mind on which the peace of the world depended, and upon which it
always must have depended so long as the fate not only of Germany
put also of Europe, rested in the hands of a single irresponsible
individual.
17. The tragedy of any dictator is that as he goes on, his
entourage steadily and inexorably deteriorates. For lack of freedom
of utterance he loses the services of the best men. All opposition
becomes intolerable to him. All those, therefore, who are bold enough
to express opinions contrary to his views are shed one by one, and
he is in the end surrounded by mere yes-men, whose flattery and
counsels are alone endurable to him. In my report on the events of
1938 I drew your Lordship’s special attention to the far reaching and
unfortunate results of the Blomberg marriage. I am more than ever
convinced of the major disaster which that—in itself—minor
incident involved, owing to the consequent elimination from