ENGLAND
S
27
CLIVEDEN SET
Five days after Austria was invaded, on March 16, at 3:30
in the afternoon, Lord Halifax personally summoned the Czechoslovakian Minister. At four o clock the Minister came out of
the conference with a dazed
and bewildered
air.
Lord Halifax
had made some "suggestions." Revealing complete ignorance of
what had happened and was happening in Czechoslovakian
Halifax was nevertheless laying down the law.
obvious that the British Foreign Secretary was getting
orders from someone else, for Halifax suggested that the Central
politics,
It was
European Republic try to conciliate Germany (which it had
been doing for months) and that a German be taken into the
On March 22 there was
cabinet (there were already three in it)
another meeting at which the Minister learned that Halifax
wanted the Czech Government to take a Nazi into the cabinet
.
as Austria took Dr. Seyss-Inquart at Hitler s orders.
This pressure from England for Czechoslovakian Nazis to
be
was virtually telling the
government
beleaguered little democracy to fashion a strong rope and hang
itself.
Subsequent events showed that Chamberlain personally
given more power
in the
supplied the rope.
Then came the historic week-end of March 26-27, 1938.
The walls of the small drawing room at -Cliveden House are
lined with shelves filled with books. The laughing and chatting
had gathered there after a delightful dinner. For the
Prime Minister of England to go through all sorts of contortions
in a game of charades might prove a trifle undignified; so the
guests
hostess suggested that they play
Everyone thought
it
"musical chairs."
was a splendid idea and
men
servants in
their impressive blue liveries arranged the chairs in the
required
order, carefully spacing the distances between them. One of the
laughing and bejeweled
"musical
chairs.
When
women
took her place at the piano. In
one person more than the number of
the music starts the players march around the
chairs"
there
is