28
CAIRO TO DAMASCUS
deep wrinkles, but when he smiled they twinkled pleasantly.
His very long upper lip, heavy drawling voice, and full but
formless mouth gave the impression of a distant and selfcontained man.
"At first I took you for a journalist," Canning said. "But you
have a wide knowledge of fanning and I see now that I was
wrong."
Was he hiding his suspicions? I was not sure. But he talked
freely, and that was what counted.
"You're an energetic fellow to find your way about so easily
here. All you Americans are energetic. You're an odd people.
You believe in humanitarianism abroad, but lynch your Negroes at home. The Jews, not your Negroes, are the ones to get
after."
"You seem to know about us," I said.
"I once visited the States for Mosley," he confided, "to see
if American industrialists would help us fight Bolshevism."
He had seen James True and Robert Edward Edmondson,
pioneer Hitler apologists once indicted for subversive activities. Canning's mission in the early thirties had been a
failure. Father Coughlin would not see him, nor would Henry
Ford. "I had breakfast with Lammot du Pont.3 He wasn't sympathetic at all," Canning said. He then asked me what had
happened to the America First Committee, to the Silver
Shirts, and other organizations that had been active. I told
him they had all been "persecuted by the Jews," and Canning
said: "It was the same thing here."
We browsed around the fields and finally went into the
charming living-room of his farmhouse for tea. Canning grew
confidential. "I was at Mosley's wedding in Germany. Hitler
was there as a witness at the ceremony, you know. I used to
see Hitler in Munich and Berlin, and once had supper with
Goebbels. Hitler was a fine man, a charming man. If three
3
Lammot and Irenee du Pont both later were heavy contributors to the
National Economic Council. Its president, Merwin K. Hart, has developed
into a Jew-baiter and a chronic propagandist against democracy. See Under
Cover and The Plotters.