I couldn’t help but admire Lloyd George. He is 72 and still bursts with life. He looked magnificent after his recent vacation: a strong, tanned, fresh face under a shock of bright white hair. The old man was in a cheerful mood. He didn’t drink wine at table, but he enjoyed the vodka and drank one or two more portions after the first.

L-G said that he is not greatly interested in the German question at the moment. The fears aroused by German belligerence are highly exaggerated. Germany needs at least ten more years to restore her military, economic and financial might. Until then Europe can sleep easily.

L-G is far more concerned about matters in the Far East. The Pacific is the most important problem of world politics in our age; all European issues are secondary in comparison. What is going on in the Far East? Japan, through the widespread use of carrot and stick, is clearly bent on establishing a powerful ‘yellow’ empire on the Asian continent. If Japan succeeds in subjugating China, Europe and America will be facing a gigantic bloc of yellow nations numbering no fewer than 500 million people. What then?…

How to fight the yellow menace? According to L-G there is one way only: close cooperation in the Pacific between England, America and the USSR. L-G inquired: what is our opinion on the matter.

I replied that the Soviet policy was and remains a policy of peace and collective security.

‘What does that mean exactly?’ L-G exclaimed. ‘Does it mean that you, having dug your trench, will say good riddance to the rest of the world?’

I replied that the USSR does not take an isolationist stance. We advocate collective security everywhere, including the Pacific. And what position does England take on the matter? I don’t remember hearing a word about the present Cabinet’s readiness to cooperate with the USSR either in Europe or in the Pacific.

L-G flared up and unleashed a torrent of criticism in the direction of the government. He was in his element here and he castigated the government venomously, calling them dunderheads devoid of the slightest imagination, with no policy worth the name. MacDonald and Chamberlain were singled out for particular abuse.