(3 of 4)
Three weeks later Prime Minister Stanley Baldwin, who rarely receives foreign envoys, conferred at No. 10 Downing Street for 40 minutes with the German Ambassador, who then rushed to Croydon and flew to Berlin, seemingly on some secret mission. To the surprise of all Europe next day the German-Japanese anti-Communist and antiWorld Revolution Pact (TIME, Dec. 7) was signed publicly for Germany, not by Foreign Minister von Neurath but by Ambassador-to-Britain von Ribbentrop—a flouting of all diplomatic custom as startling as last week's "Heil Hitler!" in Buckingham Palace. To seal the bargain Adolf Hitler tendered a banquet to the Japanese plenipotentiaries at which the life of the party was definitely Joachim von Ribbentrop.
In December the von Ribbentrops were back in London, reputedly having just broken off their membership in the German Protestant Church, became "orthodox Nazi unbelievers." With the fading out of Mrs. Simpson & the Duke of Windsor, London seemed to lose all interest for the German Ambassador. He took Abdication as his cue to fly back to Berlin, stayed there until last week, toiling at Das Eüro Ribbentrop. Presumably last week Joachim von Ribbentrop was highly nervous as to how he will get on with the new King, made a typically German psychological mistake of thinking it would be smart to see if he could get His Majesty to return the Nazi salute. That did not escape polite George VI. Few days later as Ambassador von Ribbentrop appeared at St. James Palace for the reign's first court levee and briskly saluted again, the monarch remained impassive. That Dictator Hitler's envoy may be today in a fair way to score his greatest triumph since he negotiated the Anglo-German Naval Treaty before he became Ambassador (TIME, June 24, 1935) was the startling possibility explored last week by the New York Herald Tribune's, London Correspondent Jack Beall. Cabled he: "Two Cabinet meetings were held today at the same time as the return to London of Joachim von Ribbentrop, the German Ambassador, with a supposed 'request' for the return of Germany's former colonies. The two events are related. . . .
"From a source close to Foreign Secretary Anthony Eden, it can be said with certitude that Britain is anxious for some definite diplomatic approach to be made by Germany about colonies, because that is the only way, it is recognized now, that Germany can ever be enticed into making a general settlement of the European muddle. Further than this, the British Government would not be averse to alienating African territory now under British mandate, although the outcry here would be terrific, if it were not part of a general European settlement. . . .
"It has been asserted previously many times that it would be worth any [British] Government's official life to alienate one foot of British soil. But in spite of that view the long-headed policy of the Foreign Office and of No. 10 Downing Street has kept the door open for just this sort of supposedly suicidal move. . . .