Simon and Eden leave for Berlin on 7 March (according to my information, the Conservatives would not let Simon travel alone to Berlin; Eden goes with him as a commissar). Two or three Foreign Office men will accompany them. Both will return to London on the 10th, which Simon explains by the need to take part in the parliamentary debates on defence matters on 11 March. The Cabinet will take a decision on the visit to Moscow on 6 March. The chances are good, Baldwin and MacDonald are in favour. The visit may take place within the two weeks following the return of the British delegation from Berlin. Yet V. was once again evasive about who precisely will go to Moscow. I emphasized that we expect the same persons who will travel to Berlin, and added that if V., too, could come to Moscow, it would be even better. V. said that according to custom the foreign secretary and his permanent deputy cannot leave the country simultaneously. The British minister or ministers will spend two or three days in Moscow and visit Warsaw on the way home.

I drew V.’s attention to the obsequious servility to Hitler shown by the British press and some members of the Cabinet, Simon in particular. This is a poor tactic. It only inflames the Führer’s appetite and makes him still more unyielding. Simon has not yet crossed the German border, but he has already proposed, in his talk with Laval in Paris on 28 February, to replace the Eastern Pact of mutual assistance with bilateral non-aggression pacts between Germany and her neighbours. What use will that serve? I added that we could make no concessions on the Eastern Pact issue.

Maisky was faithfully following Litvinov’s instructions of the previous evening; DVP, 1935, XVIII, doc. 93.

V. replied that the British government takes the following position on this matter: the goal of the British government is the appeasement of Europe. This is impossible without organizing eastern security. Let Germany agree with the states directly interested in this (the USSR, Little Entente, France, etc.) as to the forms of security suitable for both parties. The British government does not see the need to interfere in such negotiations. It makes no difference to the British government what agreement the East European countries reach – so long as they reach one. This is the line the British delegation will follow in Berlin.

What an unfortunate coincidence: Simon in England and Laval in France. One cannot think of worse foreign ministers from our point of view, and in such a serious period!