An ancient pomp stalked across Europe last week. Formalities and trappings moved up & down the continent. Adolf Hitler, the most grandiose tourist of all time, took a trip.
His conveyance was modern enough. Adolf Hitler's private car is made of the strongest steel, with heavy steel reinforcements along the floor. Although a bomb or a mine might lift the car from the tracks, nothing less than a direct hit by a heavy air bomb or artillery shell could pierce it. The car is heavily padded inside. Its windows are protected by thick steel shutters that can be brought down at a moment's notice.
The first stop was Paris. There the ceremonies were a little shabby, for Herr Hitler's levee was with the butcher's son, Pierre Laval. But the dealings were vast. Herr Hitler knew all about his guest; knew him for a shrewd lawyer-politician who had swung rightward with the years and was out to make a deal for France.
The French Armistice was four months old, and Adolf Hitler, seconded by Foreign Minister Joachim von Ribbentrop, had decided to present M. Laval with German demands for the future: reportedly the use of French naval bases at Toulon, Bizerte, airfields at Beirut, Tripoli, major concessions in North Africa, perhaps territorial cessions from continental France to Germany, Italy, Spain. As persuasion he offered "a place in the New Order"—or else starvation. M. Laval took the best he could get, hurried back to Vichy.
The next stop, some 24 hours later, was in the sunny little French town of Hendaye, hard by the Spanish border—and there grandeur began to show. Spanish and German flags crowded each other along the tiny station platform. Shortly after Herr Hitler arrived, another train pulled in. For the first time in four years of collaboration, Herr Hitler met Francisco Franco. The two strolled along a regal carpet, and behind them trailed dignitaries galore—Franco's brother-in-law, Ramón Serrano Suñer, recently made Foreign Minister after a visit to Berlin and Rome; Foreign Minister Ribbentrop; Field Marshals Brauchitsch and Keitel; significantly, the ghost writer of Hitler's pacts, Dr. Friedrich Gaus, and many other wearers of braid and jack boots.
Then the group conferred. Herr Hitler undoubtedly explained the Axis plans for Greece, and presumably there were words about Gibraltar and Spanish bases in Morocco. Herr Hitler dined and wined the Spaniard, and told him that he was going to present the Spanish Catholic Church with some gorgeous holy vessels, pictures and statues (stolen from Poland). Then the heroes parted.