SECRET ARMIES
22
of his close friends, is one of the most amiable and charming
of the British peers, earnest, well meaning and not particularly
bright.
In Berlin Halifax met Goering, attired for the occasion in a
bewilderingly gaudy uniform. In the course of their
new and
conversation Goering, resting his hands
on
his
enormous paunch,
said:
"The
world cannot stand
still.
World
conditions cannot be
The world
is
frozen just as they are forever.
subject to change/
s absurd to
"Of course not," Lord Halifax
agreed amiably.
and no changes made."
think that anything can be frozen
"It
Goering continued. "Germany
"Germany cannot stand
must expand. She must have Austria, Czechoslovakia and other
countries she must have oil"
Now this was a point for argument but the Messenger Ex
traordinary had been instructed not to get into any arguments;
so he nodded and in his best pacifying tone murmured, "Natur
ally. No one expects Germany to stand still if she must expand."
After Austria was invaded and Halifax was asked by his close
friends what he had cooked up over there, he told the above
story, expressing the fear that his conversation was probably
still,"
misunderstood by Goering, the latter taking his amiability to
mean that Great Britain approved Germany s plans to swallow
Austria. The French Intelligence Service, however, has a different
version, most of it collected during February, 1938, which, in the
light of subsequent events, seems far more accurate.
Lord Halifax, these secret-service reports state, pledged Eng
land to a hands-off policy on Hitler s ambitions in Central
Europe if Germany would not raise the question of the return
of the colonies for six years. Within that period England esti
mated that Hitler would have expanded, strengthened his war
machine and fought the Soviet Union to a victorious conclusion.
Late in January 1938, Lord and Lady As tor invited some