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The Hamburger Fremdenblatt taunted the British Government because its "muddling . . . leaves other governments in the greatest uncertainty as to what England will ever do in any given situation o . . highly annoying and thoughtless, if not worse, on England's part." German editors, apparently convinced that their Fatherland today has England on the run and need show scant respect, even joined in twitting Lord Halifax for having arrived in Berlin on Busstag ("Atonement Day").
So deeply religious is Lord Halifax that, when he was offered the post of Viceroy of India, he consulted his no less devout father and they prayed together in church. "When we came out," related Halifax pere afterward. "I said to Edward, 'I think you really have to go' and he said, 'I think so too'." Last week friends of the Viscount said he really had to go and be friendly with the Nazis, although the number of Protestant clergymen in jail in the Reich had just risen from 495 to 520 and the Nazis insist upon trying batches of Catholic priests on charges of sexual perversion —both situations painful to a High Churchman like Lord Halifax. In Berlin, however, he stepped off the Nord Express smiling, although no Nazi bigwig had come to meet him.
A keen huntsman, the Viscount was originally invited to Berlin by Minister President General Hermann Wilhelm Goring to inspect his Nazi International Hunting Exhibition. Not accompanied by General Goring, Lord Halifax was taken around the exhibition last week by a Nazi guide. In a long statement from the British Embassy afterward the Viscount praised the exhibition to the skies, declared: "Great Britain and every country owe a debt of gratitude to General Goring . . . really wonderful . . . showmanship . . . closely allied to the Arts."
On the third day Host Goring had not yet received Guest Halifax but had prom-ised to do so after the Viscount made a 20-hour journey to Bavaria to lunch with Adolf Hitler in his Bavarian chalet in the mountains near Berchtesgaden. After lunch Halifax was sent off by train, and the Dictator followed in his own train. The two pulled into Munich at the same time, but Hitler and Halifax did not meet again. While Halifax was undergoing his 20-hour return trip to Berlin, an official communique was issued by Adolf Hitler's press office in terms which would have been satiric had they not been so Aryan:
"On the drive upward [to Hitler's chalet], Baron von Neurath [German Foreign Minister] took the occasion to expound to his guest the characteristics of the Berchtesgaden landscape which, favored by a clear, crisp day, presented itself in all its overpowering beauty."
After tersely recording the fact that Hitler received Halifax, the communique said, referring to the Führer's glass-en-closed workroom: "Here Lord Halifax once more was privileged to cast his eyes over the snow-covered mountain landscape. The pleasant weather, magnificent surroundings and comfortable trip of the British guest appeared to have created an auspicious atmosphere for the ensuing conversations. In keeping with the character of the visit these conversations were exclusively of an unofficial nature."