Page 46 - Was Hitler a Riddle?

The British Diplomats 33

like a tiger. i derived the distinct impression,” Phipps reported, “that had
my nationality and status been different, i should have formed part of his
evening meal.” 41
in what appears to have been Phipps’s last extensive interview with Hit-
ler, on december 13, 1935, the Führer again behaved in an aberrant manner.
He referred to the russians as “noxious microbes who should be politically
isolated,” while conceding that he himself had sanctioned commercial deal-
ings with the soviet Union. as in the past, Phipps brought up the question
of German rearmament, and once again Hitler lost his composure. every
so often, he would mutter sentences such as “Germany is a very great coun-
try and always will be. she was great in a military sense under the Hohen-
zollerns and is great now. Prussia was also great as a military Power under
Frederick the Great.” He referred to russia with “supreme contempt” and
boasted that the country was no match for Germany, militarily or techno-
logically. “at times he ground the floor with his heel, as though crushing
a worm.” Phipps warned his superiors at the Foreign Office that it would
be folly for Western countries to make any concessions to the Germans.
returning the colonies Germany had lost in 1918 “would not only act as a
stimulating hors d’oeuvre to the German gormandizer, it would enormously
increase Hitler’s prestige and power. such a reward for present iniquity
would be positively dangerous; and how then could we ever show our ap-
proval of some possible emergence of any future German virtue?” the only
appropriate policy for Great Britain was to rearm as quickly as possible. “it
is only force that Nazism admires; generosity spells weakness in its eyes,
and is therefore despicable.” 42
still, in an addendum to the report on his interview with Hitler, writ-
ten six days later, Phipps offered a slight modification to his position on
Germany’s threat to world peace. He now argued that although the inter-
national situation was perilous, it was not yet desperate. Germany was not
ready for war, and the country faced serious financial and social problems,
which might yet force the Nazi leadership to change course and turn away
from its aggressive policies. Under no circumstances should the West offer
to help Germany recover economically. these mildly hopeful words did
43
not seem to carry much conviction.
Hitler was not the only prominent Nazi whose behavior in public was
so eccentric that it troubled Phipps and should have disturbed the Foreign
Office. He was also taken aback at the behavior of Göring, who was widely
considered to be the second most powerful man in the Nazi movement, as
Phipps made clear in his dispatch of June 10, 1934. that day the ambassador,