Page 84 - Was Hitler a Riddle?

The British Diplomats 71

the Nuremberg festivities touched on the “adulation, amounting almost to
idolisation of Hitler himself.” He was pleasantly surprised that, “so far, i see
no very visible sign of this worship going to his head. But he will have to be
superhuman to resist it.” 137
a far different assessment of the Nuremberg meetings was made by
Consul-General Gainer in Munich, who had served in the same position
during the rumbold and Phipps eras. as protocol required, Gainer sent his
impressions after he had returned to his post to ambassador Henderson as
well as to london. Gainer observed, “there is one word which National
socialists are fond of saying is not included in their vocabulary and that
word is ‘compromise,’ but until that word is reintroduced, even though it
should be somewhat Germanised, there is little hope for a peaceful future
for the world.” Gainer admired “many aspects of the social work” that the
Nazis were introducing, but in his view it was nullified by their disregard
of “human liberty, which boded ill for the rest of the world. a nation that
toward its own people, even from the highest motives, will not recognize
this absolute value, cannot either be expected to recognize it in its dealings
with other nations. it has once been said that the only logical attitude for a
Church to adopt is: ‘Believe or be damned’; this seems to me to be also the
attitude of the modern German state in its relations not only with its own
citizens, but also with foreign nations.” 138 it is not known how Henderson
reacted to Gainer’s report, but it is safe to assume that he was not pleased
to learn that a British diplomat who ranked below him did not share his
views.
in the meantime, Henderson had been involved in yet another misstep
that irritated eden no end. On June 22, 1937, eden reported to Henderson,
again in a letter marked “Personal,” that the austrian ambassador to Berlin
was “rather disturbed” because Henderson had asserted that he could not
understand why austria wished to remain independent. after all, its citizens
were just as German as those of Germany. Henderson also told his austrian
colleague that england wanted, above all, to maintain peace and that “mat-
ters would be simplified if Germany and austria formed one state.” eden
could not believe that Henderson had made these statements because they
ran counter to Britain’s publicly stated policy. He suspected that there had
been some misunderstanding and therefore wrote to Henderson “in a pri-
vate and friendly manner.” in his reply, Henderson both denied and con-
firmed that he had made the quoted remarks to the austrian ambassador.
He thought it “far-fetched” for his austrian colleague to maintain that he
had claimed not to understand austria’s desire to be independent. His real