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Sitting in at London as the naval base dickering began was the Admiralty's keen Vice Admiral Sir Edward Ratdiffe Garth Russell Evans, lately commander in chief of the Navy's Africa Station. Sir Edward is supposed to be deep in the confidence of his friend South African Defense Minister Oswald Pirow, so much so that some British editors spoke of what was under discussion as "the Pirow-Evans Defense Plan." It was supposed to envision, in addition to what Mr. Pirow asked of Great Britain, the following contributions by South Africa: 1) raising of a great South African air battle fleet to back the war-boats of Great Britain in defending the Lifeline of Empire; 2) establishment on a basis for quick conversion into combative use of British commercial air liners constantly winging up and down both the East and West coasts of Africa; 3) erection of munitions plants and factories for building motorized war equipment in South Africa for quickest use wherever it would serve the Empire.
The Whim, Not only the new Lifeline of Empire preoccupied Sir Samuel Hoare last week. Adolf Hitler was off on his white yacht The Whim to secret German Navy maneuvers in the North Sea, "and in Danish waters!" screamed indignant Danish editors. It was by this sort of thing that Der Kaiser in the fateful days before 1914 made his uncle King Edward VII and eventually all Britain so nervous.
Britons read with bug-eyes last week that the secret Nazi fleet maneuvers had been observed and reported by a method which smacked of the British Intelligence Service and of smart Sir Samuel Hoare. As a young Intelligence officer in Tsarist Russia, ingenious Sam Hoare knew of the assassination of Rasputin so soon after it occurred that the Imperial Police investigated. It was ultimately necessary for the British Ambassador to assure Nicholas II that Sam positively had not had advance knowledge of the deed done by assassin Prince Felix Youssoupov and friends. Last week Augur (Vladimir Poliakoff) famed London special writer for the New York Times, cabled that "a daring airman, whose nationality cannot be disclosed for the present, has flown over the North Sea at a dizzy height. His mission was to use specially sensitized plates to photograph the movements of the German fleet executed in the presence of Hitler. For it was highly important to learn the exact state of preparedness of the German naval forces and even more, the new methods their chiefs intend to apply in case of real warfare." Concluded Augur in London proudly: "At least one great Western power now possesses accurate information in this respect."