Fortnight ago the Berlin Nazi-controlled newsorgan Lokalanzeiger called former British Prime Minister Stanley Baldwin, now Lord Baldwin, a "guttersnipe." Nazis were vexed because Lord Baldwin, in appealing for contributions to a help-the-refugees fund, had condemned Germany's persecutions of Jews.
Many other British statesmen have been called just as bad or worse in the German press (notably Winston Churchill, Anthony Eden, Alfred Duff Cooper), but last week Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain, Lord Baldwin's successor, decided to defend his old Cabinet colleague. Invited to deliver the main speech at the 50th anniversary dinner of London's Foreign Press Association, which includes in its membership German as well as U. S., French, Italian, Polish, Latin American correspondents, Mr. Chamberlain, in preparing his speech, inserted amidst paragraphs of amiable generalities one moderate sentence of criticism:
"I must deplore the recent attitude of the German press, which in one case has not scrupled to pour its vituperation against our most respected statesman, himself only recently Prime Minister of this country, and in few cases has shown much desire to understand our point of view."
Advance copies of Mr. Chamberlain's speech, marked "confidential," were given to correspondents (including the German) at No. 10 Downing Street at 3 p.m., five hours before the dinner at distinguished Grosvenor House. At 6 p.m. German Ambassador Herbert von Dirksen, who was to occupy a seat at the speakers' table, got hold of a copy of the speech, telephoned Berlin. At 7 p.m. Ambassador von Dirksen notified 25 obedient Nazi newsmen not to attend, and telephoned his "regrets" to the association. The Ambassador "felt an embarrassing situation might arise if in the course of the evening mention were made of subjects entailing criticism of German affairs."
By the time the guests—among them British Foreign Secretary Viscount Halifax, Chancellor of the Exchequer Sir John Simon, the Ambassadors of Italy, France, Russia, Brazil—had begun to arrive, 50 chairs reserved for the missing Germans had been removed and table seatings rearranged. Informed of the boycott, Prime Minister Chamberlain was heard to exclaim: "How stupid!" But Mr. Chamberlain made no changes in his speech, got a big hand when he came to the "offending" sentence.
Appeaser. To most polite Britons the German boycott was a shocking lapse of manners. To the London press the "banquet incident" loomed bigger than any far-off territorial dispute. But Mr. Chamberlain's own words at the banquet proved that no question of taste would affect the Prime Minister's appease-the-dictators policy. Avoiding the use of the word "appeasement," a term no longer very popular in England, Mr. Chamberlain said he would continue to make a "prolonged and determined effort to eradicate possible causes of war and to try out methods of personal contact and discussion." Dictatorships do not last forever, the Prime Minister hinted, and "attempts at domination are never long successful."