Page 80 - Was Hitler a Riddle?

The British Diplomats 67

mark in world affairs and that he was therefore entitled to act on his own.
after he left his post in Berlin, he wrote that he had been “specially se-
lected” by Providence to help prevent an outbreak of hostilities. 123
to put it gently, Henderson had a memory lapse. He himself was sur-
prised when, after only two years in Buenos aires, he was sent to Berlin.
His German was rusty and his knowledge of German affairs not very deep.
rumbold, who had been his superior in Constantinople, gave him a “quali-
fied endorsement” but did not think he was a “strong man” and considered
him “prone to be oversympathetic to the government to which he was ac-
credited,” a serious flaw in a diplomat. 124
in his reminiscences about his years in Berlin, Henderson wrote that
despite his aversion to the “detestable aspects” of Nazism, he went to Ber-
lin determined “to see the good side of the Nazi regime as well as the bad,
and to explain as objectively as i could its aspirations and viewpoint to His
Majesty’s Government.” 125 He also contended that “it was just as much my
duty honourably to try to co-operate with the Nazi Government to the best
of my ability as it would be for a foreign ambassador in london to work
with a Conservative Government, if it happened to be in power, rather
than with the liberal or labour opposition, even though his own sympa-
thies might possibly be rather with the policy or ideologies of the latter.” 126
Henderson’s drawing of a parallel between Nazism and the three major
British political parties reveals either his ignorance or his indifference to
right-wing extremism. in any case, once Henderson settled down in Berlin,
it did not take him long to demonstrate eagerness to report on the positive
aspects of National socialism. Prime Minister Mackenzie King of Canada
reported that the Führer had told him in June 1937 that although the new
British envoy had been in Germany only a few weeks, “they all liked him
and felt he had a good understanding of German problems.” 127 Critics of
appeasement referred to him as “our Nazi ambassador to Berlin.” 128
Henderson, for his part, very quickly thought of himself as an ambas-
sador with special ties to the British prime minister, as a sort of personal
agent of Chamberlain. He and the prime minister seemed to see eye to
eye on how to conduct relations with Germany and hence the ambassador
did not consider it necessary to act merely as a subordinate to the Foreign
Office. He also corresponded frequently with sir Horace Wilson, a civil
servant of long standing who became so trusted an adviser to Chamberlain
that he was assigned an office at 10 downing street. the prime minister
also entrusted Wilson with some important missions; in 1938 he was sent to
Hitler to deliver a message and was permitted to negotiate with the Führer.