GERMAN DIPLOMAT

New Zealand Listener, Volume 26, Issue 663, 21 March 1952, Page 13

GERMAN DIPLOMAT

MEMOIRS OF ERNST VON WEIZACKER; Victor Gollancz. English price, 16/-. AFTER ‘serving in ‘the German navy for nearly, 20 years, during which time he fought through World War I and took part in the Battle of Jutland, Ernst von Weizacker transferred to the German Foreign Office, of which he became head in 1938--soon after von Ribbentrop succeeded Baron von Neurath as Foreign Minister. Already disgusted with the Nazi regime, more especially by Hitler’s massacre of Roehm’s party in June, 1934, Weizacker was horrified to hear Ribbentrop explain his policy, ‘and still more horrified at the character of the man himself. "It seemed to me," he writes; "that instead of me, my brother, the Professor of Internal Medi‘cine and Nervous Diseases at Heidelberg, should be attached to the Minister." In spite of profound misgivings, however, he felt compelled by duty to remain at his post. A lunatic like Ribbentrop, who in any case could not last long, needed someone to check the extravagance of his folly’ whenever possible. So’ Weizacker stayed on at the

Foreign Office until 1943 (when he went as German Ambassador to the Vatican), and made various unsuccessful attempts to preserve peace. In 1938 he sent secret warning to Chamberlain that Hitler really meant business of the most disastrous kind, and at the same time he encouraged Sir Nevile Henderson to make it clear beyond-all doubt to the Nazi leaders that Britain would really fight if necessary. In 1940 he advised Sumner Welles, behind his own chief’s back, to start a peace move with Hitler, using Mussolini as mediator. These clandestine activities went undiscovered, but Weizdcker claims to have openly opposed Ribbentrop on several occasions-most notably as regards his views on war with Russia in 1941. I use the word "claims" advisedly, because it is difficult to understand how Weizacker kept his position if he really did oppose Hitler and Ribbentrop as persistently as he maintains. Naturally enough, he is anxious to clear himself of the stigma attaching ta one who worked with Nazis. The intention: pervades his pages, but the case he presents has weaknesses that are not easily ignored. As an exposure of what took place on the other side of the hill this book is of great interest and ae Br as an essay in self-justification I find it not altogether convincing.

R. M.

Burdon