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Mr. Chamberlain arrived in Godesberg last week to find Herr Hitler evidently 14 convinced that there might be no limit to the concessions, threatening, via his controlled German press, to hurl his army against Czechoslovakia "within 48 hours," unless Prague immediately went beyond the concessions already made. At this the Prime Minister promptly balked. With the River Rhine running between the Petersberg, hotel of the Britons, and the Dreesen, a favorite hostel at which the German Dictator was stopping for the 68th time, Neville Chamberlain began exchanging stiff, formal diplomatic notes with the Führer—the kind of thing that gets published after war begins in a British Blue Book, a German White Book. Each note was carried ceremoniously in diplomatic cars, and each time the Rhine was traversed on a perky little ferry smelling of fresh paint. Journalists in the two hotels could not telephone directly to each other, as all lines were reserved for officials, so they called London for news from the correspondent at the other hotel. Cracked owlish German wits: "It is the Watch on the Rhine." Rhinelanders gathered on both banks to watch, kept scores of Zeiss binoculars trained on the ferry.
When the Prime Minister, still secluded, signified that he would fly back to London Saturday morning but would first make a final contact with the German Chancellor, tense correspondents chorused, "Is it to negotiate, or will Chamberlain only see Hitler to say good-by?"
Drawled imperturbable Sir Horace Wilson, Chief Industrial Adviser to His Majesty's Government: "Well, he isn't just going for the ferryboat trip."*
Actually Neville Chamberlain had spent three hours with Adolf Hitler, still trying to act as broker for Peace, studying newly drafted documents and a map freshly traced in red ink (see cut). This was the Hitler Map, the fatal red-inking of his Godesberg Demands. But there was also a Chamberlain Map, showing what Czechoslovakia, Britain and France remained ready this week to give Germany. A German communique announced that the Godesberg Negotiations had been "friendly," and Neville Chamberlain on arriving in London said: "I trust that all concerned will continue their efforts to solve the Czechoslovak problem peacefully, because on that turns the peace of Europe in our time."
October 1st. The reported Chamberlain Map and the Hitler Map, superimposed upon each other (see cut, p. 14), show at a glance the geographical difference between the Berchtesgaden Plan and the Godesberg Demands. Either would give Germany all the most important fortifications of "the Czech Maginot Line," which encircles the West end of Czechoslovakia. To sanction either would mean that Britain and France had scrapped League and other post-War treaty obligations which have been supposed to safeguard the "territorial integrity" of Czechoslovakia.