I learned some curious things today from good sources. Simon, it seems, is obsessed with the quite fantastic idea of becoming prime minister after MacDonald, who, it has allegedly been decided, will step down immediately after the royal jubilee. Simon needs an impressive ‘success’ to achieve that. He has been planning to bring this ‘success’ back from Berlin. That’s why, early in the year, he began ‘secret’ negotiations (unknown to the Foreign Office) with Hitler through Lothian, Ribbentrop and others. During these negotiations, Hitler pulled the wool over Simon’s eyes, refusing to commit himself definitively, but sending the vague message that, under certain conditions (which?), he might be ready to ‘consider’ the question of arms limitation, a return to the League of Nations, and the preservation of the demilitarized zone on the French border. Simon believed, with peculiar naiveté, that all these concessions were more or less in the bag, hence the blatantly pro-German line he has been espousing for the last three months. Hence also his craving to travel to Berlin, and his servile attitude to Hitler with regard to the latter’s ‘hoarseness’ and to the decree of 16 March. At a conference on Sunday, 17 March, which was attended by Baldwin, MacDonald, Eden, Simon and Vansittart and was held to discuss the reaction to the German decree, Simon and Vansittart argued so heatedly that Vansittart was on the point of declaring his resignation, before he was eventually persuaded to stay. Vansittart insisted that it was necessary to consult with the French government before deciding how to act. Simon, on the contrary, insisted on an immediate response. Simon was victorious, and the note was sent on 18 March. In order to ease the situation for Simon, Hitler promised that Ribbentrop would fly to London on 20 March and give an interview to the newspapers, where he would announce, in vague terms, the possibility of Germany returning to the League of Nations ‘under certain conditions’. However, on the morning of the 20th, the French government resolved to appeal to the League of Nations against Germany’s violation of the Versailles treaty. Hitler found out about this immediately and intercepted Ribbentrop, who had already departed for London, in Hanover, instructing him to return. As a result, Simon found himself in an awkward position. Serves him right.