PZ 5749/39(1) 'Propaganda: Articles forwarded to Persian Gulf, Kabul & Katmandu for dissemination' [‎221r] (441/715)

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( 4 ) Idem No. 75.
they received a favourable response from the Polish Government, they
received scant consideration from Germany.
38. On the evening of the 25th August the Anglo-Polish Pact
had been signed in London. Though it had been under negotiation
^for several months, its signature gave great offence to Herr Hitler,
who was at first inclined to regard it as the reply of His Majesty’s
Government to his message to them. His immediate retort was the
announcement on the morning of the 26th August that Herr Forster
had been appointed Reichsoberhaupt, or Head of the State of Danzig.
At the same time the German concentrations against Poland began
to reach their final stage.
39. Thereafter there was a lull for two days pending my return
to Germany with the reply of His Majesty’s Government. I had left
London at 5 p.m. on the 28th August, and at 10-30 p.m. I was
received by Herr Hitler at the Chancellery and handed to him that
reply, together with a German translation. I sent to your Lordship
a full record of my conversation with the Chancellor the same
night. ( 4 )
40. On this occasion Herr Hitler was again friendly and reason
able and appeared to be not dissatisfied with the answer which I had
brought to him. He observed, however, that he must study it
carefully and would give me a written reply the next day.
41. I would mention incidentally that both that evening and
the next, when I visited Herr Hitler again and was handed his reply,
nothing was left undone to enhance the solemnity of the occasion.
A considerable but quite expressionless crowd was waiting outside the
Chancellery and a guard of honour awaited me in the courtyard of
the main entrance. In view of what has been reported to the
contrary, I desire to bear witness here to the fact that throughout
the whole of those anxious weeks neither I nor my staff received
anything but the utmost courtesy and civility from all Germans,
except on one occasion to which I shall refer later.
42. Such information as reached me during the course of the
day of the 29th August tended to represent the atmosphere as not
unfavourable and to foreshadow Herr Hitler’s readiness to open direct
negotiations with the Poles. I was therefore somewhat disappointed
on being summoned to the Chancellery at 7-15 that evening to find
the Chancellor in a far less reasonable mood than on the previous
evening. The German midday Press had reported the alleged murder
of six German nationals in Poland, and this story, which was probably
fabricated by the extremists in fear lest he was weakening, together
with the news of the Polish general mobilisation, had probably upset
him. I sensed in any case a distinctly more uncompromising
attitude on Herr Hitler’s part when he handed me his answer. I